By Enyichukwu Enemanna
For the first time since 2019, the Africa CEO Forum which is the largest gathering of the African private sector will meet in-person on 13 and 14 June at the Sofitel Ivoire in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
This comes as the Forum expected to have in attendance over 1,500 participants, including the heads of large African and international companies, heads of state and government will centre deliberations on Africa’s economic sovereignty.
This is not unconnected with measures to ameliorate the effects of Covid-19 which has profoundly disrupted global economies and supply chains, and the consequences of the war in Ukraine have shown the continent’s overdependence on the rest of the world, including for its most vital needs.
Key highlights will be the reduction of food import bill (projected at $110bn by 2025), regaining control of digital data (80% of which is stored outside Africa) and manufacturing medicines locally.
The quest for greater economic autonomy is becoming a central feature of public policy on the continent.
The implementation of these strategies must be based on a solid public-private dialogue involving the African champions of today and preparing the ground for those of tomorrow, as demonstrated by the recent successes of Morocco in logistics and Nigeria in the cement sector.
The Africa CEO Forum community is expected to proffer solutions to How African economies can emerge from global shocks, which sectors states should target in their quest for sovereignty, and what impact might this may have on the development of the African common market.
Also, ways the African private sector can contribute to the continent’s food self-sufficiency, how the financing of large infrastructure projects can be Africanised will be at the front burner.
The 2022 edition, which will also mark the tenth anniversary of this conference, the most important of the African private sector, will also be an opportunity for political and economic leaders to discuss the energy transition and the historic opportunities that this global challenge offers to the continent, which is rich in raw materials essential to the production of clean energy.
