Change Africa’s story through partnerships and investments, says Senior Director of Africa Investment Forum | African Development Bank

Africans should reject their continent’s status quo vision and work with the private sector, governments and development partners to take advantage of the vast opportunities, said Africa Investment Forum senior director Chinelo Anohu.

Anohu delivered the keynote speech opening the Africa Futures Symposium 2023, hosted by the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School in Philadelphia, USA.

The Lauder Institute was founded in 1983 by Ronald Lauder and his brother Leonard, the heirs of the cosmetics company Estée Lauder. The Lauder Institute includes an Africa program that prepares students to lead Africa-focused conversations in today’s global economy.

Ronald Lauder was an advocate for the development and prosperity of Africa. In 2015, he co-founded Alta Semper, a private equity firm that has invested more than $150 million in leading healthcare companies in Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda.

The theme of the 2023 symposium, shifting stories, reflects a broader movement to transform Africa into an attractive investment destination with high returns.

It is also in line with the goals of the Africa Investment Forum, a flagship initiative of the African Development Bank and seven founding partners, which promotes private and public partnership transactions across Africa to financial close.

“The narrative about Africa needs to change through partnerships, investments, not aid, and engagement in a way that builds the continent,” Anohu said. “We need to take a symbiotic approach, a collaborative effort with the private sector, public institutions and individuals to deliver impactful results.”

Anohu praised the United States for its continued commitment to Africa and in particular to the Africa Investment Forum. The Forum and the United States Trade and Development Agency co-hosted an event last July for 40 women leaders at the forefront of sustainable infrastructure in Africa and signed a memorandum of understanding regarding financing of eligible transactions in specific areas. sectors, for feasibility studies and transactional transactions. consultancy services to project sponsors. This collaboration has already led to project preparation funding for one of the women-led projects on the AIF platform.

She said the Africa Investment Forum’s flagship Market Days event, to be held in November 2023, will bring together international deal sponsors, investors and government leaders to access trades ready to close.

Projects on display at the 2022 Market Days event, held last November, attracted $31 billion in investment interest from African and global investors. The rescheduled 2021 Market Days event, which took place in March 2022, mobilized an additional $32.8 billion in investor interest during that calendar year for a total of $63.8 billion.

Following Anohu’s keynote speech, Margaret Mensah-Williams, Namibia’s ambassador to the US, joined Akunna Cook, founder and CEO of Next Narrative Africa; and Okendo Lewis-Gayle, Founder and Chairman of Harambeans; to discuss what lies ahead for Africa.

Lewis-Gayle noted signs that global actors’ behavior towards Africa was changing, noting that senior representatives from the US, Russia and China had all visited African countries by 2023.

Cook explained that she founded Next Narrative to counter the Western media’s portrayal of Africa as primitive, risky and needy.

“If we don’t replace those images with other images… the effect is that really important investments don’t go to the continent and really important partnerships aren’t formed on the continent,” she said.

Dr. Regina Abram, Director of Lauder’s Global Program opened the second day of the symposium. It brought together academics and leaders from business and government to discuss topics such as Africa’s demographic dividend and the respective roles of the digital economy and diaspora in Africa’s development.

Other speakers included Deniece Laurent-Mantey, a special adviser on the implementation of the US-Africa Leaders Summit at the US State Department and Dr. Guevera Yao, Executive Director for Africa, US Chamber of Commerce.

While in the US, Senior Director Anohu participated in bilateral meetings with various corporate executives and institutional investors.

Click here for more information about the Africa Future Symposium.