Africa Investment Forum 2022: Trade and Investment (full)

This year the Africa Investment Forum Market Days-the continent’s premier investment platform-has drawn $31 billion in investment interest from African and global investors.
Speakers:
Alan Kasujja, Presenter BBC World Service, Moderator
Dr. Benedict Okey Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, African Export-Import Bank: The current global shocks unleashed by drastic impacts of Covid-19 pandemic, the ongoing Ukraine crisis and the intensification of geopolitical tensions are reshaping our world in a way no one previously imagined. Although, these happenings affected us but also allowed us to re-think in a positive manner and how to discover new opportunities given the situation. We just need to focus on our trade related policies and make our investment in a smart manner.
Wamkele Mene, Secretary-General, African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat: The most important question today is 'How Africa responds to this rapidly shifting geopolitical tensions and how do we make sure that we improve our self sufficiency as a continent? The main barrier of achieving self sufficiency and economic development is Africa's over reliance on global supply chains on global commodity markets for export of unprocessed goods. We need to reduce our dependence on foreign countries for our needs and try to work in the direction of making Africa resilient.
Admassu Tadesse, President & Chief Executive, TDB: We have a conference that believes less in talks and more in actions. I have witnessed so much progress over the years and I feel so proud when I look at the achievements we have come across so far. The level of confidence and collaboration we have today amongst different developmental organisations prepare us for achieving Africa's dream.
Rajakumari Jandhyale, President and CEO, YANTRA Ventures: We have been dealing in public goods for a long time and we understand that the government also needs investments so that they can work on different strategies in order to provide these goods to the people of Africa. As these goods are capital intensive and thus require huge capital inflow and FDI. Therefore, in this regard we have come up with the project “East Africa Energy security & Transition '' to deal with handling the issues related to energy & security that often the continent faces. And to achieve this goal we are collaborating with different investors around the globe as well as domestic players to be a part of this project.
Mohan Vivekanandan, Group Executive, Origination & Coverage at Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA): There lies an opportunity for this 3-trillion dollar market. We are trying to ensure that the infrastructure is in place to perform different types of trade. We just need to engage local private investors to become a part of capital market structure so that businesses can be more engaging and competitive. We need to produce what our trade partners are eager to buy so that we will be able to create a market for those goods and services and people will be interested to purchase those at a fair price. The detailed programme structure is available on the bank's website. Do visit to know more: afdb.org/en
About the AfDB: The African Growth Bank (AfDB) Group's primary goal is to promote long-term economic development and social progress in its regional member countries (RMCs), thus contributing to poverty reduction. Visit for more at: afdb.org/en";