World
BRICS and Africa: Balancing Interest Between Geopolitics and Development
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), a group of emerging market powers and one of the most popular organizations, seeks to approve African States into its fold and build on its existing economic and trade with other invited African leaders during the 15th summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The BRICS members are meeting to deliberate on a broad range of important multiple issues, including new membership, common currency, various parameters of development and security and institutional architecture. More than 70 states are participating, including African leaders, while 23 States have submitted formal applications to join the group.
During his pre-summit visit to Addis Ababa, Foreign Minister Qin Gang pointed out Chinese support and solidarity with the government. Ethiopia’s relations with the West have deteriorated over the deadly conflict in its northern Tigray region.
In 2021, Washington imposed sanctions on Ethiopian officials involved in the conflict, cut aid and denied Ethiopia special access to the United States market under its African Growth and Opportunity Act of 2000. However, China accused the United States of meddling in Ethiopia’s internal affairs and assured Addis Ababa’s desire to join BRICS.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has also been vocal on critical issues, most of the time urging African leaders to look for inside, within the concept of African Problems, African Solutions. His views are mostly focused on creating a fairer global system even while diversifying their partnerships under African strategies.
After a series of media monitoring and research, only three African States might gain membership into the bloc. These are Algeria, Ethiopia and Egypt. BRICS members have to agree on the criteria; the differences of opinion between China and India, as well as Brazil, preclude a quick resolution to the issue of accepting new members.
But both Brazil and India have promptly rebutted this “assumption” against BRICS expansion. The essence of BRICS lies in unity, and while India harbours concerns about China’s economic clout and has consistently asserted the border disputes.
Notwithstanding these, if expansion finally happens, it will bring the total African representation to four, including South Africa. It implies, in principle, the new members contribute to the changing processes and further give potential force for substantial geopolitical shifts.
Many experts believe that the expansion of BRICS would help Beijing promote its Belt and Road Initiative projects. The potential expansion of the group has set off alarms for Brazil and India, which are proud of BRICS’ exclusive nature. In this group, China is the strongest country from an economic point of view. It is really positioning itself as a leader of the Global South.
China needs raw materials, and Africa has a lot of them. China needs markets for its goods. It also needs investment projects, in particular for investing in infrastructure. China has a lot of companies building railroads, airports, and seaports. Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to hold a special meeting with African leaders to be chaired by the host South African Cyril Ramaphosa.
In addition, Xi and Ramaphosa are talking about strengthening ties and will witness the signing of some agreements with African delegations, according to the South African president’s office. China and South Africa would have comprehensive bilateral agreements.
Already on August 10, ahead of Xi’s visit, Chinese companies signed 20 deals to buy products worth US$2.2 billion from South Africa. South African Trade Minister Ebrahim Patel and Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao witnessed the signing at a joint economic and trade committee meeting aimed at boosting South African manufacturing exports to China. Anglo American Platinum, Glencore, Sappi and Pioneer Fishing were among South African companies involved in the agreements.
Across Africa, BRICS members are seen as important trade partners, sources of foreign investment and champions of the concerns of so-called developing countries, according to Tim Zajontz, a Research Fellow in the Centre for International and Comparative Politics at Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
“We can expect President Xi to stress at the summit that China and the BRICS are at the centre of South-South cooperation and ready to boost economic development across Africa,” Zajontz said, referring to collaboration among countries in the Global South.
In the run-up to the summit, however, the grouping’s shortcomings are in the spotlight. Some say there is a lack of coherent vision. “The objective necessity for a grouping like BRICS has never been larger,” said Rob Davies, South Africa’s former trade minister, who helped usher his country into the bloc in 2010. “The multilateral bodies are not places where we can go and have an equitable, inclusive outcome.”
Still, challenges abound for the BRICS and, indeed, the discussions surrounding its expansion. BRICS members have to reach the needed consensus; a broader problem was referred to recently by Jim O’Neill, namely that there is a lack of focus on pragmatic themes that matter for the economy and markets. Too much effort has sometimes been expended on secondary issues that have no bearing on the economy, markets or global governance.
Lord Jim O’Neill, a former Goldman Sachs economist who first gave the BRICS bloc its name, has slammed the idea of the five nations ever collaborating to create a common currency. But O’Neill, who coined the bloc’s name in a 2001 research paper, is unconvinced. “It’s just ridiculous,” he told the Financial Times in an interview. “They’re going to create a BRICS central bank? How would you do that? It’s almost embarrassing.”
De-dollarization is the latest buzzword to capture the market’s imagination and refers to efforts aimed at undermining the greenback’s command of global trade by promoting the use of other currencies.
According to the International Monetary Fund, proponents of the idea point to the fact that the dollar’s share of global reserves has fallen over the past two decades — though it still makes up nearly 60% of the world’s foreign-exchange holdings.
In the interview, O’Neill criticized the dollar’s role in directing the movements of other currencies around the world. “The dollar’s role is not ideal for the way the world has evolved,” he said. “You’ve got all these economies who live on this cyclical never-ending twist of whatever the (US Federal Reserve) decides to do in the interests of the US.”
Yaroslav Lissovolik, former Advisor to Russia’s Executive Director in the International Monetary Fund and currently the Founder of BRICS+ Analytics, argues that, despite the challenges and risks, BRICS+ together have the capability of creating a new layer of global governance that is represented by regionalism, i.e. coordination mechanisms for regional blocs and their development institutions.
With respect to the core, the BRICS are likely to unveil the main criteria for the expansion of the core, which may include, among other things, the economic weight of the candidate countries in their respective regions.
But before these grand plans are to materialize, BRICS needs to deliver on some of the most pressing issues for the global economy and for Africa, he explained and added “the best contribution is for BRICS to create and deliver through a support mechanism to the African States. This, for instance, would go a long way towards contributing to the success of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
With an estimated 58 million population, South Africa is the 25th largest country in the world. South Africa welcomed and fully supported the adoption by African nations of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), which we believe will contribute tremendously in pursuit of the economic integration of our continent towards the attainment of our vision: Agenda 2063, the Africa We Want.
At a broad glance, Africa is becoming an essential part of the world. And it is a natural task for South Africa to promote the African agenda in this group. The theme: “BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development and Inclusive Multilateralism” reflects the priority for Africa.
Four BRICS leaders will attend in person. Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in the summit in an online format. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will travel to Johannesburg to represent Russia at the summit in person.
But today, what is South Africa’s investment in BRICS? How do we assess the level of development and food security if BRICS control that huge natural resources and human capital? How has South Africa, these several years as the only African State in BRICS, used its membership to facilitate and promote investment from BRICS into the African continent?
Ultimately, the BRICS alliance represents a distinct shift in global power dynamics; it somehow provides a platform for greater influence and assertiveness on the global stage and will continue potentially reshaping the existing world order. At present, BRICS members account for 23% of the global gross domestic product and 18% of trade, further having around 42% of the world’s population.
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
One year after launching a continental initiative designed to make excellence in public governance the foundation of a new drive to transform Africa, LEAD, the Africa CEO Forum’s pan-African leadership programme, takes stock of its first cohort and announces the launch of its second class. Built around a community of senior public decision-makers committed to modernising the state and to the continent’s digital transformation, this new cohort gathers for three days, from 28 to 30 August 2026, on the campus of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) in Rabat, Morocco.
A second cohort that confirms the programme’s durability
For its second class, LEAD brings together 50 fellows, senior public decision-makers engaged in the design and implementation of the continent’s economic and social policies. Over three days, participants take part in collective and collaborative working sessions, peer exchanges and meetings with figures from the public, business and academic spheres, in order to compare their practices and build shared responses to the major challenges of governance.
Speakers include Mehdi Jomaa, former Head of Government of Tunisia, Donald Kaberuka, Managing Partner & Founder, SouthBridge Group, and former President of the African Development Bank, Serge Ekue, President of the West African Development Bank (BOAD), Sanjay Jain, co-creator of India Stack and Director of Digital Public Infrastructure, Gates Foundation, and Mauricio Cardenas, Professor of Professional Practice in Global Leadership, Columbia SIPA, and former Finance Minister of Colombia (2012-2018).
They share their reform experience, their public policy trade-offs and their view of continental priorities. Throughout the programme, the cohort benefits from the dedicated support of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Asafo & Co, BOAD, BCG and the African Development Bank, LEAD partners that have chosen to invest in the transformation of African public action.
LEAD, a pan-African community serving public action
Created by the AFRICA CEO FORUM, LEAD is a leadership programme whose ambition is to reposition Africa’s administrative elite as a driver of reform, of performance and of dialogue with all the continent’s stakeholders.
Designed for senior African public decision-makers, LEAD sets out to build a lasting community of public officials able to share their experience, compare their practices and build common solutions to the major economic, technological and institutional transformations under way in Africa. That community is structured around three pillars: modernizing the state, improving public services, and strengthening cooperation between governments, development institutions and private-sector players.
From fellows to alumni: a long-term initiative
Made up of 36 fellows drawn from a range of administrations and institutions and representing 24 countries across the continent, LEAD’s first cohort demonstrated the quality and the potential of this community from its very first year. In less than twelve months, six of its members have taken a significant step forward: two have been appointed ministers, two have moved into strategic positions at the highest level of the state and two have been promoted to chief executive roles. These moves, which account for 16.7% of the first class, show the role LEAD plays as an accelerator of impact within African administrations.
By bringing together a new cohort of fellows every year, each of them joining the LEAD alumni community, the initiative follows a long-term trajectory: in time, to unite several hundred African public decision-makers around a shared culture of transparency, performance and regional cooperation.
A first year devoted to public service and digital public infrastructure
Throughout the year, the fellows devoted their work to strengthening African public action, to make excellence in public governance a central lever of transformation. An awareness campaign, run as part of Africa Public Service Day, brought to light those who, within the continent’s administrations and institutions, are concretely transforming public policy and improving the services offered to citizens.
Members of the cohort also took part in a special round table held in Kigali during the ACF 2026, in order to carry their thinking to a wider community of public and private leaders. That forum reinforced LEAD’s role as a platform for dialogue between the administrative elite and the continent’s economic players. Digital public infrastructure (DPI) formed the main thread of this first year of work.
Discussions covered issues at the heart of the digital sovereignty of African states: digital identity, payments, secure data exchange, interoperability, governance and the protection of citizens. This work examined the conditions under which African states are developing, in some cases, and can develop, in others, shared, open infrastructure robust enough to improve the quality of public services while supporting local innovation and preserving the capacity of public authorities to set the rules of the game.
A white paper to move from consuming technology to creating value
This year of work concludes with the publication, in collaboration with BCG, LEAD’s Knowledge Partner, of a white paper on Africa’s place in the digital economy and in artificial intelligence. With the digital economy still accounting for around 5% of African GDP, against close to 15% worldwide, the paper calls on the continent to shift from a logic of technology consumption to one of value creation.
The white paper identifies three structuring priorities for African public actors:
- Building shared digital infrastructure that serves as the backbone of public services and private innovation.
- Pooling investment in order to reach critical mass and avoid the fragmentation of efforts across the continent.
- Favouring open and interoperable architectures, with trust and governance built in by design, so as to protect citizens while stimulating the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The white paper is available here to all public decision-makers, technical partners and institutions concerned.
“LEAD’s first cohort confirms a simple conviction: Africa already has the women and men capable of profoundly transforming public action. Our responsibility, either with our partners, is to give them, at pan-African level, a space in which to compare experience, build common solutions and bring forward a new generation of public policy. With this second cohort, we want to accelerate the move from ambition to execution, in particular on digital public infrastructure and artificial intelligence, two decisive issues for sovereignty, for the effectiveness of the state and for value creation across the continent,” says Amir Ben Yahmed, President of the Africa CEO Forum.
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
Africa is set to make history as it hosts the World Public Summit for the first time, with Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, welcoming global leaders and changemakers from July 29–30, 2026, for the landmark gathering under the theme “New World: Africa in Shaping a Shared Future.”
The inaugural African edition of the World Public Summit marks a significant milestone in the continent’s growing role in shaping international dialogue on governance, sustainable development, human-centred leadership and global cooperation.
Hosted by the World Peoples Assembly in partnership with African and international organisations, the summit will convene government officials, diplomats, business leaders, academics, journalists, youth representatives, civil society organisations and cultural leaders from across Africa and around the world.
According to Andrey Belyaninov, General Secretary of the World Peoples Assembly, “the Summit is not just a meeting—it is a space for unity. A space where the ‘values that unite us’ come to life: respect for people, openness to the world, responsibility for the future, and a commitment to creation.
“Today, we understand more clearly than ever: the future cannot be built alone. It is born in dialogue, in trust, in the ability to listen to one another and to act together.”
The programme begins on July 29 with a series of high-level roundtables and expert discussions covering Pan-African economic integration, civil society, education, scientific cooperation, cultural diplomacy and humanitarian partnerships.
The opening plenary, “Values, Development and Partnership as the Basis of a Sustainable and Just World,” will explore how African values—including Ubuntu—can help shape a more inclusive and sustainable global future. Discussions will also focus on youth leadership, innovation, civil society, ethical AI, public initiatives and international partnerships.
The summit will also showcase Africa’s creativity and innovation through the “Innovations for the Future” exhibition, the contemporary African art exhibition “Unity,” and the international exhibition “The World Paints Happiness.”
Another featured initiative is “The Zambezi River: Economy, Society, Soul,” an international interdisciplinary project exploring the river’s socioeconomic importance across Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, highlighting the shared heritage and development potential of one of Africa’s most important waterways.
The event will conclude with the adoption of the African Communiqué, reflecting the summit’s shared vision for stronger international cooperation, sustainable development and people-centred leadership.
Tsegaye Chama, General Secretary of the Global Black Centre, promised that, “The Summit will be delivered with exceptional distinction, reflecting the magnitude and spirit of the World Peoples Assembly. It embodies a unity that is not transactional, but purposeful and conscious, a unity that shapes new contours for a world that works for all peoples of the World.”
As delegates prepare to arrive in Addis Ababa, anticipation continues to build for what promises to be one of Africa’s most significant international gatherings of 2026—one that will place the continent firmly at the centre of global conversations about the future.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria regained its position as Africa’s leading destination for equity startup investment in the first half of 2026, raising $214 million in equity financing and a total of $254 million across equity and debt, according to the latest Africa: The Big Deal report.
The report, titled H1 2026: Mapping the Money, showed that Nigeria ranked second on the continent in total funding, behind Egypt, which attracted $327 million, while Kenya and South Africa followed with $126 million and $83 million, respectively.
However, the report noted that Egypt’s top position was largely driven by a single fundraising by electric mobility company Spiro, which secured $327 million, including $270 million in equity and $57 million in debt. Excluding debt financing, Nigeria emerged as Africa’s largest equity funding market in the first six months of the year.
According to the breakdown by Africa: The Big Deal, Nigeria’s equity funding of $214 million was higher than Egypt’s $183 million, while South Africa and Kenya attracted $66 million and $46 million, respectively.
Beyond funding value, Nigeria also led the continent in the number of startups that raised at least $100,000 during the review period, reclaiming the top spot after what the report described as an “underwhelming” second half of 2025.
The publication observed that Nigeria’s fundraising performance has remained relatively stable over the past few years and exceeded the $250 million mark for the first time since 2022, pointing to renewed investor confidence in the country’s startup ecosystem.
It also found that while the Big Four startup markets—Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and South Africa—continued to dominate Africa’s investment landscape, their combined share of total funding stood at 58 per cent in the first half of 2026.
“Zooming back on the Big Four (110 out of 190 $100k+ deals, i.e. 58%), Nigeria is head and shoulders above its peers, with Egypt and Kenya almost tying, and South Africa in fourth position again,” the report noted.
The report highlighted contrasting performances among the continent’s largest startup ecosystems. While Nigeria and Egypt maintained strong funding momentum, Kenya recorded its weakest funding performance since early 2021 after a strong second half of 2025, and South Africa failed to attract $100 million in funding during the period despite leading the continent a year earlier.
Africa: The Big Deal also noted a broader shift in investor behaviour, with funding increasingly concentrated in larger transactions while early-stage investments continued to decline. According to the publication, the drop in smaller funding rounds reflects growing concerns about limited capital available for early-stage startups across Africa.
