The 13th Africa CEO Forum concluded in Kigali on May 15, 2026, with nearly $2 billion in agreements, partnerships and memoranda of understanding signed across two days of high-level deliberations involving more than 2,800 business and government leaders from over 77 countries.
The forum, organised by Jeune Afrique Media Group and co-organised with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, was held at the Kigali Convention Centre in Rwanda under the theme “Scale or Fail: Why Africa Must Embrace Shared Ownership.” It brought together heads of state, ministers, chief executives, investors and sovereign wealth funds to debate how a continent of fragmented national markets can build the corporate scale needed to compete globally.
IFC and Access Bank signed a $500 million equivalent local-currency financing agreement, designed to expand lending to small and medium-sized enterprises as well as the agribusiness, housing and infrastructure sectors across Africa, while reducing exposure to currency volatility. That deal formed part of a broader IFC commitment of more than $1 billion announced in Kigali, made through partnerships with Equity Bank, Access Bank, Shelter Africa Development Bank, Baobab, NMB Bank, the West African Development Bank (BOAD) and Zaria Group, spanning infrastructure, energy, finance, agriculture, industry and digital sectors.
Makhtar Diop, Managing Director of IFC, said: “The talent is there. The capital exists. The ambition is undeniable.”
He framed the decade ahead as a test of execution rather than aspiration, calling on partners to develop bankable projects, mobilise capital and deliver results across infrastructure, agribusiness, health, housing, sport and the creative industries.
The concept of shared ownership emerged as the central pillar of the forum’s conclusions, structured around three practical levers. The first was shared equity: accelerating cross-border investment and mobilising African institutional capital. The second was shared infrastructure: connecting markets and integrating regional value chains. The third was shared frameworks: harmonising the regulations needed for the free movement of capital, goods, services and talent at continental scale.
Amir Ben Yahmed, CEO of Jeune Afrique Media Group and President of the Africa CEO Forum, said Africa’s challenge is no longer building national champions alone but constructing continental players capable of asserting influence in a world defined by size.
A first for this edition was the inaugural Africa NextGen Economist Prize, created by Jeune Afrique and The Africa Report in partnership with the African Development Bank. The prize went to Abdoulaye Ndiaye, a 37-year-old Senegalese economist and assistant professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, selected from more than 70 candidates across 14 African countries for his research on domestic resource mobilisation, taxation and sovereign debt.
The Forum has now facilitated over $1 billion in signed investment commitments across its two most recent editions, establishing Kigali as the operational address where Africa’s scale ambitions are being converted into structured capital.
