Inaugural Alamein Africa Forum Explores Ways to Bridge Gap to Realize AU Agenda 2063
The inaugural Alamein Africa Forum took place in New Alamein City on the Mediterranean Coast in Egypt. Established under the African Union Mandate from the AU Summit in February 2026, it is a biennial African Business Forum. The event will be permanently hosted by Egypt and is co-organized by the Government of Egypt, the African Union, or the AUDA-NEPAD to be more specific, and the Afreximbank.
Originally planned for June 2026, it was postponed due to public health concerns. Some 1,500 delegates from more than 60 countries converged on Alamein during these two days. Several African heads of state or government and business leaders attended the Forum. On the sidelines of the Forum, Egypt took the opportunity to hold meetings with several other African countries to advance bilateral cooperation.
In his welcome address, Egypt’s President Abdel El-Sisi noted the large gap to be bridged to achieve the AU’s Agenda 2063. Intra-African trade is still hovering at a paltry $220B, accounting for only 18% of all trade, and African SME still face high hurdles to do business in neighboring countries. He championed more Public-Private Partnerships (#PPP) to realize the goals set in #Agenda2063.
Rotating AU Chair and Burundi’s President Evariste Ndayishimiye proposed that NEPAD implement a ‘smart dashboard’ for tracking projects with committed financing, implementation timelines, and actual results. He commended the great efforts in bolstering economic corridors, regional value chains and cross-border payments as significant progress.
AUDA-NEPAD CEO urged Africa to invest more in Africa by putting to better use underutilized African Pension Funds, Insurance Funds, Sovereign Wealth Funds (#SWF). Blended Finance can act as seed capital and act as leverage to crowd in private capital after derisking the project and demonstrating its viability.
Along with several African Foreign Ministers, US Senior Advisor for Arab and African Affairs Massad Boulos participated in a discussion panel around the theme of Economic Diplomacy. The distinguished panel was aligned on the necessity for tighter economic integration under #AfCFTA so that Africa can compete effectively and globally with large economies to attract capital and catalyze its development.
On the other hand, Boulos reiterated Trump’s Administration approach encapsulated in #TradeOverAid toward Africa. He highlighted the need for stability as a sine qua non condition for development and investment, and the USA is taking responsibility to help resolving the conflict in the Horn of Africa. He advocated for stronger economic partnerships between the US and Africa to achieve ‘common prosperity’.
AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene highlighted the automotive sector as a strategic opportunity for Egypt and the African continent. Africa has all the #CriticalMinerals needed to build an electric vehicle, but would require close cooperation among AU member states to tap into the opportunity ahead.
In that regard, the AfCFTA Secretariat and the African Association of Automotive Manufacturers signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen collaboration. The MoU covers matters such as Rules of Origin, standards, capacity building, trade facilitation, supplier and value-chain development, mineral local beneficiation, and emerging technologies.
The participants came up with the Alamein Declaration that basically called for measurable outcomes from the Forum. The Declaration called for the creation of the Alamein Investment Platform to better track projects, the curation of a flagship bankable project pipeline, the creation of SME value chains, and the operationalization of at least one African-led derisking / blended finance instrument, built upon the Alliance of African Multilateral Financial Institutions (AAMFI) Infrastructure Financing Facility (AIFF). The general mood was that it is well time for Africa to ‘move from ambition to implementation’.