By Babajide Awoyinfa
Hicham Al Marabet, Director of the Africa Financial Summit (AFIS), says this year’s edition of the summit will deepen financial integration and capital mobilisation across Africa.
Marabet said in a statement on Thursday that the summit would hold in Luanda, Angola, from Nov. 3 to Nov. 4.
He said the event, co-hosted by the World Bank and Jeune Afrique, would focus on strengthening Africa’s financial sector.
According to him, the sector must be enabled to provide financing for the real economy and support sustainable economic development across the continent.
Marabet said AFIS was evolving from a conventional summit into a platform for partnerships and deal-making among key financial stakeholders.
“The second aspect is the deal-making and partnership-making parts, because we believe that full dialogue is extremely important.
“We also need to have catalytic deals that demonstrate these regulations could work for the private sector players,” he said.
He said the summit would focus on finance reaching the real market and helping the private sector to scale with purpose.
According to him, the summit will also examine technology on African terms and integration that makes scale possible.
He said another priority would be finding ways to convert African savings into African investments.
Dafe Oraka, Principal Investment Officer, International Finance Corporation (IFC), described AFIS as an annual platform for shaping Africa’s financial future.
“It brings financial leaders together to consider how the sector can acquire skill, reach and expertise to mobilise private capital for job creation.
“It also supports Africa’s next phase of development,” he said.
Oraka said hosting the summit in Angola would be the first time the event would be held in a Lusophone country.
“This creates opportunities for stronger regional integration, deeper financial markets, and greater cross-border investment and connectivity across Africa,” he said.
According to him, the summit will enable stakeholders to develop solutions for strengthening Africa’s capacity to finance its own development.
“Africa faces financing gap despite available capital.”
Oraka said Africa faced a huge financing gap in spite of the existence of significant pools of available capital.
He said SMEs and infrastructure financing alone required more than 400 billion dollars across sub-Saharan Africa.
Oraka said IFC saw opportunities to connect available capital more effectively with businesses and infrastructure projects.
He said such financing could support productive sectors and create jobs across Africa.
“For us, this is where AFIS comes in. Now in its sixth year, AFIS has been Africa’s main annual event for shaping the continent’s financial future,” he said.
Oraka said the summit would also provide opportunities for Nigerian banks to demonstrate leadership across Africa.
He said Nigeria had strong financial institutions that could contribute to discussions on expanding Africa’s financial capacity.
The organisers said more than 1,200 participants from over 60 countries attended the 2025 edition.
They said the participants included more than 80 ministers, central bank governors and regulators.
According to the organisers, the 2025 edition featured 47 sessions and more than 500 business meetings. (NAN)
Edited by Folasade Adeniran
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