By Africa Links 24
Published on 2024-01-31 07:00:00
Africa Collective, with the AfCFTA Secretariat as patronage partner, enhanced its presence at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting between 15-19 January 2024. The objective was to provide a platform to amplify and exchange on African topics at the gathering of world leaders. A key focus of the Africa Collective week was to discuss the investment climate on the African continent and how to leverage opportunities and resolve existing challenges in doing business, all in the context of accelerating the implementation of the AfCFTA.
The weeklong program included several high-level sessions, each bringing together between 50-80 key decision makers from the public and private sectors. The week commenced with a welcome luncheon entitled “Paving the Way: Commodity-led Industrialization on the African Continent” with insights from industry leaders. This was followed by a breakfast roundtable in partnership with Novartis, focused on the topic “Moving the needle: From health ‘spend’ to healthcare as an investment”. A digital & art showcase networking cocktail then brought together global & African leaders with talented African artists and high potential startups.
In partnership with Standard Bank, a breakfast roundtable examined the topic “Unleashing potential: Africa’s place in attracting future allocation of capital pools.” The week concluded with the Africa Collective closing & outlook luncheon, under the theme “Navigating Business Realities for Scalable African Solutions”.
The key learnings from the week include the importance of collaboration and alignment between the public and private sectors, the need for strong institutions and regulatory harmonization, leveraging opportunities the free trade agreement has created and actively contributing to its implementation, the critical role of physical and digital infrastructure, and the private sector’s role in the empowerment and wellbeing of communities.
The Africa Collective corporate partners played a significant role in shaping these discussions, and media partners provided coverage throughout the week. In the 12-month leadup to Africa Collective Davos 2025, the Africa Collective will continue to grow its network of actionable exchange and collaboration on African opportunities.
For more information, please visit the official websites of the AfCFTA Secretariat and Africa Collective.
