Programme

The fraying of multilateralism, the reordering of trade, and the retreat of aid flows are redrawing the map of global capital. In this new order, size is no longer a strategic advantage – it is the first line of defence. Africa enters this moment with real momentum. But momentum is not scale. And scale will only be achieved on Africa’s own terms through one organising logic: shared ownership – African nations and businesses investing not only in themselves, but in each other’s growth, assets, and markets. The Africa CEO Forum’s opening panel brings together leaders operating at the intersection of capital, industry and the continent’s ambitions to ask a defining question: What will it take for Africa’s leaders to turn shared ownership from ambition into practice – and what stands in its way?
 
Key questions

• Shared equity: Can African capital markets and institutional investors become the backbone of continental expansion?
• Shared infrastructure: What will it take to move from isolated megaprojects to integrated cross-border corridors – connecting resources, markets and people at continental scale?
• Shared frameworks:  How can legal and technological frameworks become drivers of scale — turning regulatory coherence into a continental competitive advantage?

Africa’s upstream gas sector is accelerating. Senegal’s GTA reached export in 2025, Congo shipped its first LNG cargo in 2026, and new LNG capacity across Nigeria and Mozambique is coming online imminently. But as geopolitical tensions and gas prices rise, African gas seems destined almost exclusively for international markets, with exports slated to double by 2030. Domestic gas-to-power frameworks and projects continue to lag, and despite initiatives like Mission 300 to build up domestic demand, export markets remain the safer bet. How can African actors align contracts, logistics, incentives and financing structures quickly enough to capitalise on – and tap into – their own power source?

Key points:

• Export vs domestic priority: Which supply chain models and contractual agreements can make regional consumption commercially viable for both producers, off takers and final consumers?
• The bankability gap: Mission 300 is advancing grid reform and transmission investment, yet final consumer creditworthiness remains an obstacle. Which risk-sharing instruments or data-advocacy initiatives could mobilize further investment? 
• Bridging the gap: Can export projects be redirected to supply local demand, and which risk mitigation tools are necessary to make this a reality?

Access via sign-up on the event app or by invitation only. (40 participants)

Global trade flows are being reshaped by industrial overcapacity in Asia, redirected trade routes, and renewed state intervention across major economies. In 2025, renewed trade tensions have accelerated this reconfiguration, with surplus manufacturing capacity redirected toward open markets – with Africa the prime target. While the continent remains committed to open markets and imports can support consumer welfare, they also can widen trade imbalances and end-market dependence. This Executive Dialogue will examine how African economies can remain open for business while managing emerging imbalances, safeguarding industrial ambitions, and strengthening their position in a more fragmented global trading system.

Key points:

• Morocco’s automotive rise and Kenya’s pharma growth show that industrial bets can work. How can African public and private leaders jointly pick winning industries?
• Producer & consumer: How can African economies reconcile open trade ties with strategic industrial and competitiveness objectives?
• Processing platform – Can trade infrastructure help Africa become the mid-stage manufacturing bridge between Asia’s production base and Western markets?

In Mozambique and Nigeria, last-mile logistics can represent up to 80% of total vaccine and malaria supply costs. Across Africa, with few exceptions, logistics are a key driver of inaccessibility to medical assistance, diagnostics and essential health products. From cold-chain innovation to drone deliveries, and from tele-health to remote community healthcare upskilling, the potential for improvement from a low base is vast. With a $150M investment in Zipline by the DFC, the benefits will be felt by patients and business alike. As the continent’s demographics evolve, shifting needs from acute to chronic diseases, how can Africa’s healthcare players deliver both necessary care and returns?

Key points:

• Sharing the cost in the post-aid era: how can drugs manufacturers, logisticians, philanthropic and government actors collaborate to lower the cost of accessible care?
• Inventions and innovation: what are today’s technological game-changers improving healthcare access?
• From DHIS2 to OpenMRS: how can data fragmentation be overcome to make healthcare delivery a bankable business?

Africa’s next wave of mines and industrial plants will be faced with a choice: lower long-term energy costs with clean power, or hydrocarbons for stable, dispatchable supply. On the one hand, the economics are shifting fast: the global average LCOE for newly commissioned utility-scale solar and wind are down 90% and 70% respectively since 2010, outpacing even the most optimistic predictions. In parallel, battery storage costs have also fallen sharply, meaning the case for leapfrogging hydrocarbons is strong. Conversely, ROI is not LCOE. Heavy industry needs 24/7 industrial electrons, not just cheap power. Gas in particular couples proven reliability and bankability with vast untapped reserves, continuously improving technologies on flaring and methane capture. With Africa’s electricity demand projected to rise by 75% this decade according to the IEA, the investment question is technical: does clean energy beat gas on full-cycle returns for greenfield industrial loads — or do hydrocarbons remain the lowest-risk route to uptime?

African mining and energy projects are increasingly being planned together rather than in isolation. In the Zambia–DRC battery corridor, backed by the $3.5 billion Lobito project, governments are exploring shared power and mineral-processing capacity. First Quantum Minerals is developing 430 MW of renewables for its copper-belt Kansanshi and Sentinel mines, a move from traditional captive power to systems enabling local processing. In Namibia, green hydrogen plans link renewables, desalination and critical-mineral processing in emerging industrial zones, hinting at how clean energy could support the minerals and rare earths needed for tomorrow. Together, these cases point toward a continental shift: mines designed not as isolated export projects, but as system assets anchoring regional industrial development – raising hard questions about integration costs, risks, and bankability.

Key points:

• Who must move first – and who must absorb the early risk – to make integrated mineral-energy planning viable: governments, miners, utilities, or financiers?
• Where does “system asset” ambition start to undercut mine bankability? What integration demands are simply incompatible with competitive projects?
• Are the Zambia–DRC corridor and Namibia genuinely replicable models – or outcomes of exceptional geopolitics, concessional finance, and state capacity?

Africa’s aviation and maritime sectors face a compliance reckoning. From 2028, global carbon pricing schemes—CORSIA for aviation and EU ETS/FuelEU Maritime for shipping—will raise costs on African routes, yet the infrastructure to comply barely exists. Sustainable Aviation Fuel accounts for less than 1% of global supply and is unavailable at most African airports. Alternative marine fuels face similar constraints, with limited bunkering capacity. African carriers must meet rules designed elsewhere without parallel investment in fuel supply chains or transition finance. The risk: higher costs, weaker competitiveness, reduced access to European markets. Yet Africa’s renewable energy potential creates opportunity to produce green fuels domestically, while efficiency gains in fleet operations, port turnaround, and multimodal integration can reduce emissions and costs simultaneously.

Key points:

• Who absorbs the cost shock? How are compliance costs shared between carriers, cargo owners, governments, and consumers?
• Efficiency before fuels: What operational levers – fleet renewal, route optimization, port productivity – can deliver near-term emissions and cost gains?
• From fuel importer to producer: What infrastructure, financing, and partnerships would allow Africa to become a competitive green fuel hub by 2035?

From mines to ports, Africa is modernising fast through “smart” systems that promise efficiency and competitiveness. Anglo American’s FutureSmart Mining deploys digital twin replica of physical assets and autonomous fleets. Retailers like Carrefour Egypt use Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure to run energy-optimised, sensor-rich stores. Tanger Med and Port Louis are adopting real-time platforms that coordinate all actors from customs to carriers. Africa’s Industry 4.0 and 5.0 is operational – but is it aligned with Africa’s strategic priorities? This discussion explores the risks and opportunities of Africa’s AI boom and the future of its strategic industrial autonomy.

Key points:

• Productivity not dependency: How can operators retain control of data, avoid vendor lock-in, and build local capability in systems integration and industrial intelligence?
• How can operators, governments and the industrial technology companies collaborate to roll out at speed, while allaying fears?
• As operations become algorithm-driven, productivity and safety improve – but what happens to skills, jobs and the learning-by-doing that fuels wider economic spillovers?

African pension and deposit funds alone manage over $230bn – part of a domestic capital pool estimated at over $1.1 trillion – yet infrastructure allocations remain negligible across the board, often below 1%. This is not simple risk aversion. The same institutions readily deploy capital into rated corporates and sovereign instruments, wherever assets meet their requirements: credit thresholds, predictable cash flows, professional governance, downside protection, and credible exits. The paradox is real: sovereign debt attracts billions while infrastructure equity struggles to raise millions from the same investors. The issue isn’t appetite – it’s whether African projects are packaged to compete.

Key points:

• Fit to compete: What does it take for an infrastructure project to clear the bar for institutional capital? What credit enhancements – partial guarantees, subordinated tranches, revenue escrows – can create investment-grade risk profiles at scale?
• Repeat business: Which standards in contracts, disclosure, foreign-exchange risk management and project preparation turn landmark deals into repeatable investment systems across sectors?
• Crowding in: How can we redesign DFI tools to bring African institutions to the table alongside global capital – turning local savings into lead cheques, not last money in?

Access via sign-up on the event app or by invitation only. Reserved for participants in the Oil & Gas Industry and Media. (30 participants)

For African companies, gas is no longer a future optionality, yet pure gas investment has yet to pick up at needed scale. While several mega-LNG projects have made headlines, they barely maintain current production. Despite Nigeria launching its Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme in 2020 and awarding contracts to dozens of companies, flaring intensity now stands at double the global average. Five years of policy effort have not translated into bankable projects – small, isolated fields remain too expensive to monetize profitably. Unpredictable offset agreements, local subsidy schemes, and low prices act as financing chokepoints. Meanwhile, payment uncertainty from utilities and unreliable grids cripple domestic monetization, blocking growth in one of Africa’s most promising sectors.

Key points:

• Financing structures: From compressed gas corridors to captive industrial demand, which models are best suited to attract capital for African gas projects today?
• Payment architecture: What contractual or regulatory mechanisms can reduce offtaker risk from utilities and industrial buyers enough to make domestic gas projects bankable?
• Capital competition: How can indigenous operators secure financing and market access as domestic demand grows while global markets signal continued gas demand?

Africa’s tech sector hit a definitive inflection point in 2025: M&A deals surged 72% to a record 67 transactions. As venture capital tightened, strategic buyers pivoted toward consolidation. Moniepoint acquired two financial institutions for license expansion. Twiga Foods bought three distributors for supply chain control. Flutterwave’s Mono acquisition and Paystack’s Ladder Bank purchase signal a major shift toward integration as a scaling strategy. With 62.5% of Nigerian fintech firms planning regional expansion but facing 12+ month regulatory approval timelines, acquisition has become the fastest path to cross-border scale and license access. Can consolidation create durable pan-African champions, in the face of continental regulatory fragmentation?

Key points:

• Regulatory acceleration: What concrete policy changes would unlock faster cross-border tech M&A – harmonized approvals, mutual license recognition, clearer competition thresholds?
• Time to buy: When should established players move from partnerships to acquisition? What signals indicate a target is integration-ready versus a distraction?
• AfCFTA Stars: Can start-ups leverage their entrepreneurial agility to set an example for transnational African integration?

Africa faces a 50-million-unit housing deficit and a $1 trillion financing gap. In cities like Nairobi, Abidjan, and Lagos, 75% of the population are tenants. While this reflects booming urbanisation and growth, driving Centum’s double-digit annual rental yields in Kenya, outperforming stocks and bonds, it is also the result of a broken system. Banks operate with high policy rates, weak land-title systems, and few formal developers, which makes long-tenor mortgages difficult. But solutions are emerging. The West African Development Bank (BOAD) is proposing mortgage-portfolio securitisation. Shelter Afrique and IFC are backing cost- and climate-conscious developers, while PropTechs like Jumba and Seso Global are digitising land records, materials procurement and rental management. The real challenge now is to turn these breakthroughs into a housing system that works at scale and attracts long-term investment.

Key points:

• The Big Long: Can securitisation or other financial structures tap into a real appetite for exposure to Africa’s demographic boom?
• What are the economic obstacles for developers to embarking on smaller-scale, faster real estate projects? Can threshold be lowered to diversify and catalyse the industry?
• Costing jobs: How can developers, DFIs and governments collaborate to ensure returns are secured while stable jobs are created?

Africa’s fertiliser market is projected to exceed $80 billion by 2030, driven by upstream investment from OCP, Dangote and Indorama. Input use is rising in Nigeria and Kenya, and targeted programmes have lifted yields in some staples. Yet twenty years after the Abuja Declaration committed governments to 10% agricultural spending and 6% growth, most countries missed both targets. Even where inputs have driven productivity gains, weak midstream capacity prevents industrial translation. Africa still imports $70–100 billion of food annually because local output rarely meets industrial buyers’ volume, standard or reliability requirements. Regional breweries and bottlers struggle to source consistent local feedstock. The real frontier is forging scalable midstream industries – processing, storage, quality assurance – that stabilise supply, anchor value chains and build the agro-industrial champions Africa needs.

Key points:

• Which midstream investments – milling, storage or packaging – would most effectively convert Africa’s growing input investments into industrial capacity?
• How can large processors and FMCG giants structure offtake systems that absorb local crops and de-risk expansion?
• Which regional standards, logistics corridors and financing structures can enable African firms to scale beyond national markets?