Unstoppable Africa Summit 2026 Calls for ‘Africa to Invest in Africa’
From 20 to 21 September 2026, the Global Africa Business Initiative (GABI) held its flagship Unstoppable Africa Summit in New York, in the margins of the 81st United Nations General Assembly (#UNGA81). African Union Commission (AUC) Chair Mahmoud Youssouf, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and UN Global Compact CEO Sanda Ojiambo attended the Summit.
Several African heads of state or government also participated in the event, which attracted around 3,000 delegates. The theme for this edition was ‘Powering Business, Scaling Economies, Shaping the Future’. The core messaging was to leverage the AfCFTA to spur the graduation of African economies in the global value chains (#GVC).
Ghana’s President John Mahama called for regional integration to command greater negotiating power and agency in world matters . One important area of cooperation is the building of regional logistical corridors, which will not only boost intra-Africa trade but improve the competitiveness of African products on the global market.
Namibia’s President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah focused her speech on #CriticalMinerals in Africa for the Global #EnergyTransition. She underlined the need for local value addition (LVA) so that Africa can elevate itself from extraction to #industrialization.
Botswana’s President Duma Boko emphasized that ‘Africa must invest in Africa’. He called for Africa’s pension funds and sovereign wealth funds to finance traditional infrastructure projects, but also innovative projects created by the African youth.
Similarly, Rwanda’s PM Justin Nsemgiyumva underscored that Africa must not be left behind the AI revolution that is going on. He shared the experience of Rwanda to implement a Digital Public Infrastructure and eCommerce solutions to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SME).
US Senior Advisor on African and Arab Affairs Massad Boulos outlined the Trump’s Administration new approach to Africa. He framed it under the three P’s: Peace, Partnership, and Prosperity. The US is already involved in a few regional corridor projects across Africa. Currently, the focus of the USA is to secure #CriticalMinerals by fostering US private sector investment in Africa.
GABI estimates that Africa presents a multi-trillion-dollar market opportunity. The time is now to invest in Africa as it is the region with the many of the fastest-growing economies in the world. The recent launch of the IPO of Dangote is yet another concrete case of how African can invest in Africa.