Africa CEO Forum

🌍 "Why don't you start one?" In four words, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu turned a moderator's question into a continental challenge from the main stage of the Africa CEO Forum Annual Summit in Kigali. 🛒 The question on the table was simple. Why does Africa, with all its commodity wealth spread asymmetrically across borders, still lack a continental exchange platform where producers and buyers can trade with one another rather than routing every transaction through external markets? Tinubu's answer turned the question back on the room. The continent's two largest economies, Nigeria and South Africa, have the scale, the volumes, the capital markets infrastructure and the political weight to launch precisely that platform. The case for waiting is increasingly difficult to defend. 📊 The numbers behind the provocation matter. Nigeria's non-oil exports to African markets grew 38% year-on-year in 2024. Intra-African trade is projected to climb from 15% in 2023 to 25% by 2030 under the AfCFTA framework. Cargo clearance times at major Nigerian seaports have already dropped by roughly 30% since 2023. The architecture for deeper intra-continental trade is being built piece by piece, but a continental commodity exchange would mark a qualitative leap, moving Africa from price-taker to price-setter on its own resources. 🤝 The deeper message is one of leadership by example. For years, the integration debate has been carried by communiqués and frameworks. Tinubu's challenge cuts through that. The two giants of the continent should stop debating who should move first and instead move together. That is what pan-African capitalism looks like when it stops being a slogan, African producers trading African commodities on African platforms, settled in African currencies. 🇷🇼 The question Kigali is putting on the agenda this week is no longer whether the AfCFTA will be implemented. It is who will dare to build its missing institutions. #ACF2026 #AfricaCEOForum

🌍 Day 1 of #ACF2026 in Kigali set the tempo for the entire continent's economic conversation. 📈 2.000 leaders gathered around a single, uncompromising question: how does Africa stop scaling its ambitions and start scaling its industries, its capital, and its ownership of its own future. From the opening ceremony to the final strategic roundtable of the day, the answer that emerged was sharper than any past edition has delivered. 🎤 President Paul Kagame, Makhtar Diop of IFC - International Finance Corporation and Abdul Samad Rabiu, CFR, CON of BUA Group framed an opening sequence that refused the comfort of incremental thinking, anchoring the day around a clear premise: Africa at scale is no longer an aspiration to defend but a decision to execute. ⚡ Across the stages that followed, the opening panel on shared ownership, the head-to-head on energy economics, the candid exchange on why African banks still aren't lending at the level the continent's growth demands, every conversation pushed past diagnosis and into the architecture of execution. 🎬 The highlights, in two minutes. 👉 Day 2 is now live. Join the conversation: https://lnkd.in/d4iiuSM3 #ACF2026 #AfricaCEOForum

Façonnez le prochain chapitre de l’Afrique – Kigali, 14 & 15 mai 2026 Prenez part aux débats sur les perspectives de croissance de chaque secteur. Saisissez de nouvelles opportunités d'affaires dans un environnement propice aux transactions.

Participez à l’histoire de la croissance africaine à Kigali, 14 & 15 mai 2026 Saisissez de nouvelles opportunités d'affaires dans un environnement propice aux transactions.

Façonnez le prochain chapitre de l’Afrique – Kigali, 14 & 15 mai 2026 Prenez part aux débats sur les perspectives de croissance de chaque secteur. Maximisez le positionnement de votre marque.

Participez à l’histoire de la croissance africaine à Kigali, 14 & 15 mai 2026 Prenez part aux débats sur les perspectives de croissance de chaque secteur. Saisissez de nouvelles opportunités d'affaires dans un environnement propice aux transactions.