Strategic Roundtable | Overcoming the barriers to local currency debt markets
Access via sign-up on the event app or by invitation only. English-French translation available. Local currency debt markets are vital for Africa’s monetary and fiscal resilience. Despite this, outside South Africa and Nigeria, under 15% of sovereign bonds (2015–2023) were issued in local currencies with corporate bonds mirroring this trend. This contrasts with 89% of […]
Strategic Roundtable | Smart insurance: Sharpening up claims, risk modeling and operations with AI and insurtech
Access via sign-up on the event app or by invitation only. English-French translation available. Machine learning, AI and GenAI could shakeup how insurance is distributed, priced, and how claims and investments are managed. While nearly 70% of US insurers have begun implementing GenAI, adoption remains nascent across Africa. But frontrunners like Old Mutual and Britam […]
Strategic Roundtable | Regulatory passporting: The missing link to smoothing cross-border compliance and sparking innovation?
Access via sign-up on the event app or by invitation only. English-French translation available. Over 54 jurisdictions and disjointed compliance regimes: Africa’s fragmented regulatory landscape continues to slow the expansion of financial innovation. Licensing a fintech in multiple countries can cost up to $2 million per market, while divergent KYC, AML, and data rules impede […]
Strategic Roundtable | Climate shock cover: How to expand regional climate risk pools
Access via sign-up on the event app or by invitation only. English-French translation available. Deeper risk pools at regional level may be required to cover insurers’ liabilities to increasingly frequent floods and droughts amid high reinsurance costs. The African Union’s African Risk Capacity, the COMESA-backed Africa Nature Risk Pool, and Morocco’s $275 million Solidarity Fund […]
Opening Ceremony
BOAD Side Event – Transformative transitions: New financial pathways for Africa’s energy and agriculture
Access via sign-up on the event app or by invitation only. English-French translation available. Africa’s future rests on two interdependent transitions: a shift toward low-carbon, affordable energy, and the development of a resilient, productive agricultural base. Yet financing these priorities through conventional channels has too often proven inadequate – too slow, too risk-averse, and disconnected […]
Panel | Reviving African stock markets: Forging publicly-listed family businesses with pan-African ambitions
Family-owned businesses make up 70% of Africa’s private sector yet they are underrepresented on stock markets, limiting their access to long-term capital. Boxer (raising $471m), Shri Krishana Overseas Ltd.’s recent listing on the Nairobi Securities Exchange, and WeBuyCars listings in South Africa prove investor appetite exists for family-rooted firms. On the Bourse de Casablanca, family-owned […]
Panel | AfCFTA, PAPSS & AELP: How can pan-African initiatives deliver the impact financial institutions want to see?
Africa’s grand integration projects – AfCFTA, PAPSS and AELP – promise deeper financial connectivity, yet most institutions expect “limited” rather than transformational impact (Deloitte-AFIS Barometer). Behind this scepticism lie doubts about measurable business impact, regulatory fragmentation, disparities in digital infrastructure, reluctance to trade volatile local currencies without hedging, and governments unwilling to cede financial control. […]
Panel | Mobilising domestic savings into the local economies: What’s stopping institutional investors?
African institutional investor (pension funds and deposit and consignment funds) assets now exceed $230 billion. Yet less than 10% of pension funds is invested in domestic capital markets outside South Africa and Nigeria – and just 1.5% in infrastructure or alternatives. In Uganda, listed equities represent under 1% of institutional holdings despite pension assets equalling […]
MASTERCLASS CYBASTION | Cyber Insurance and Digital Security in Africa
As digital transformation accelerates across Africa, private sector organizations—particularly financial institutions— are facing a sharp rise in cyber threats, with significant economic and operational consequences. According to INTERPOL’s report on digital risks in Africa, cyber incidents have led to estimated financial losses exceeding $3 billion between 2019 and 2025, with the finance, healthcare, energy, and public sectors among […]