World
Preparations Begin for 2026 Russia-Africa Summit
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
By declaring October 28-29, the dates for the third Russia-Africa Summit, which carries a strategic weight, Russia has demonstrated another practical approach towards raising multifaceted relations with Africa, reconvening African leaders, corporate executive entrepreneurs, stakeholders and academic researchers to highlight its noticeable achievements and bilateral agreements that have been implemented since 2019. Russia has already held two significant Summits – the first one in its southern coastal city, Sochi, and in St. Petersburg, the second largest city.
With an explicit purpose and sharpened position to its partnerships with Africa, the forthcoming October deliberations have to evolve an in-depth analysis of its economic diplomacy, and what has so far been delivered from the multitude of pledges and bilateral agreements signed during the previous Summits.
Russia’s media gave a tectonic coverage following concrete dates of the Summit announcement, referencing Anatoly Bashkin, Director of Sub-Saharan Africa at the Foreign Ministry, who noted that a number of African leaders have already confirmed their participation in the Kremlin-supported corporate event. In late March, President Vladimir Putin finally approved Moscow as the venue and ordered the creation of an organising committee for the Summit under the leadership of presidential aide Yury Ushakov.
Putin indicated with newly arrived African ambassadors, in the Kremlin, that Russia and Africa have “relations of true partnership, support and mutual assistance” and added, “We remain committed to the expansion of mutual political, economic, and humanitarian contacts. We continue assisting the people of Africa in their ambition to develop, to actively participate in international affairs.”
Duplicating Tasks, Little Results
Under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there is a Dept of Sub-Saharan Africa with well-staffed directors with a clearly-defined strategic task, including Pan-African affairs. The first Summit held in October 2019, ultimately seeks to inject a new dynamism in the existing Russia-Africa relations, and it now has the newly created Public Council under the Secretariat of the Russia–Africa Partnership Forum. The Secretariat further created a Public Council, which also incorporates a Coordinating Council, Research Council and Media Council. This structure aims, primarily, to uplift and solidly support the entire gamut of relations into a new stage, change perception among the Russian and African public and give Russian-African relations an entirely new outlook into the future.
Sergey Lavrov has also created the Joint Intergovernmental Commissions on Economic and Trade, and Russia has established this Commission with 28 African countries. The Joint Commissions meet regularly to strengthen economic and trade collaborations. Lavrov has also established special trade sections, headed by highly qualified staff, in Russia’s diplomatic missions inside Africa.
According to historical documents, the Coordinating Committee for Economic Cooperation with African States (AfroCom) was created on the initiative of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation and Vnesheconombank with the support of the Federation Council and the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. It has had support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Economy and Trade, and the Ministry of Natural Resources, as well as the Ministry of Higher Education and Science. Long before the first Summit, as far back in 2009 as the year of its creation, AfroCom was designed to be “an ubuntu-focused platform to connect and empower the global Afro-community – across Africa and the diaspora.” It is currently headed by ex-Senator Igor Morozov, who took over from Petr Fradkov, now head of SobkomBank.
There is also another business NGO referred to as the Association for Coordinating Economic Cooperation with African States (AECAS), headed by Russia’s former Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov. This Russian NGO, with a Supervisory Board and an Expert Council, is also another key structure for the development of economic ties between Russia and Africa. The list of this kind of organisation, enjoying state grants, is endless in the Federation. Indeed, Russia now has all the structures fixed and two summits’ declarations that set out the focused directions for the necessary take-off to Africa. “There is a lot of interesting and demanding work ahead, and perhaps, there is a need to pay attention to the experience of China, which provides its enterprises with state guarantees and subsidies, thus ensuring the ability of companies to work on a systematic and long-term basis,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov explicitly said.
According to Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Ministry would continue to provide all-around support for initiatives aimed at strengthening relations between Russia and Africa. “Our African friends have spoken up for closer interaction with Russia and would welcome our companies in their markets. But much depends on the reciprocity of Russian businesses and their readiness to show initiative and ingenuity, as well as to offer quality goods and services,” he stressed.
Amid these years of European and Western sanctions, Moscow is looking for both allies and an opportunity to boost trade and investment in Africa. Currently, Russia’s trade with Africa is less than half that of France with the continent and 10 times less than that of China. Asian countries are doing brisk business with Africa. In terms of arms sales, Russia leads the pack in Africa, and Moscow still has a long way to catch up with many other foreign players there. In 2024, Russia’s trade with African countries grew more than 17 per cent and exceeded $25billion. At the Sochi summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would like to bring the aggregate trade figure, over the next few years at least, to $40 billion.
Russia’s Economic Weaknesses
Research shows that Russia’s economic footprint in Africa remains comparatively weak, largely due to a lack of financing mechanisms and a reliance on short-term, security-based diplomacy. While Russia boasts strong diplomatic and military ties, it seriously lacks the institutional funding and capital capabilities of competitors like China or the European Union.
Lack of Institutional Financing
Unlike China’s robust use of its policy bank, ExIm Bank, or Western development agencies like the U.S. DFC, Russia lacks the institutional mechanisms to provide African governments with major credit lines, concessionary loans, or capital guarantees for infrastructure. This frequently leaves bilateral memorandums, agreements, and investment deals stuck in the planning phases.
Western Sanctions
Since the 2022 ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine, Russia’s major banks have been severely impacted by global financial sanctions. This limits international credit and makes it remarkably difficult for Russian private firms to finance, sustain, and export large-scale industrial or development projects.
Asymmetrical Trade Dynamics
Outside of grain exports, nuclear energy technology, and some defence contracting, Russia and Africa share very little in complementary trade. Logistical hurdles, rising transport costs, and an over-reliance on a handful of commodities prevent Russia from competing effectively across broader commercial or consumer sectors.
Focus on Security over Economics
Records show Russia barters military support, security training, and weapons in exchange for direct access to natural resources with African countries, particularly the Francophone, facing financial difficulties or instability, which they often blamed on France. It is no secret that Russia’s heavy reliance on exporting military equipment and weaponry to conflicting African regions. This has been very controversial, attracting arguments about whether Russia was concretely interested in development and providing infrastructure on the continent. Russia has never provided any development to African countries, but it has military agreements. This leaves persistent gaps between its ambitions to siph off resources in exchange (barter system) of military equipment supply and the intention of keeping peace, most of it at the expense of on-the-ground economic development.
The South African Institute for International Affairs (SAIIA) said in its report that strengthening military-technical cooperation is part of the foreign policy to generate revenue. It has agreements with more than 20 African countries. In this report, SAIIA argues logically that few expect Russia’s security engagement to bring peace and development to countries with which it has security partnerships. The narratives pointed out clearly that Moscow’s strategic incapability, inconsistency and dominating opaque relations are adversely affecting sustainable developments in those African countries. Peace-building and conflict resolution are so remote from providing infrastructures and spurring economic growth. In 2023, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute also said Russia accounted for approximately $14bn of arms supplied to the Saharan Africa.
Rethinking Development Paradigms
With the third Russia-Africa Summit, African leaders have to seriously think along the following lines, determining how to finance projects, instead of waiting to implement agreements and re-sign them in future, and finally keep postponing economic developments. In practical reality, African leaders have to choose between symbolism and concrete alternatives to attaining their development sovereignty.
From the previous Summits, Russia has road-mapped priorities with Africa in the following spheres: Energy and nuclear technologies, Economic and Trade, Oil and Gas Exploration, Transport and Logistics, Financial Mechanisms, Industry and Manufacturing, Agriculture and Food Security, Military and Maintaining Security, Healthcare Systems, Digital Transformation, Humanitarian, Science and Innovation, Education and Training.
For Africa, practical collaborations have to move beyond geopolitical symbolism, shift away from the stage of rhetoric to a different stage of interests in implementing agreements to measure results of partnerships and development growth. Collaboration has to move to a broader level of identifying economic opportunity and to be followed by an investment posture, a show of valuable engagement over mere rhetoric. It is practically time to act, show noticeable outcomes of declarations from the first and second Summits. In a geopolitical context, Africa now has suitable external alternatives.
At the Institute for African Studies, researchers on Russian-African cooperation indicated that Russia has influenced Africa in multiple ways, but time has indeed changed. Across Africa, a broader global dynamic is centred on the rivalry between the United States and China, including over-access to critical resources and technology chains. China’s global dominance in the extraction and processing of rare metals is used by Beijing as a competitive advantage, including through control over African mining enterprises and logistics infrastructure. In turn, the United States is increasingly tying its position on the continent to countering China in critical raw materials supply chains, digital infrastructure, and technological standards. As a result, Africa has become an important arena for their technological and economic clashes. In all these, Russia doesn’t have the same interest in African resources. Russia absolutely does not need Africa; it is resource-rich and wealthy itself. Africa has to ensure its own economic sovereignty. In this concluding context, Russia and Africa are poles apart. It is important to note that Russia’s interest is only to support Africa to gain economic power in the emerging multipolar world.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Accessing the US Dollar in the East Africa region has now been made easier with the expansion of the stablecoin settlement infrastructure of SCRYPT.
This development enables banks, payment providers and corporate treasury teams to move value into and out of the continent in real time.
Businesses paying international suppliers frequently have to convert local currency into USD before purchasing stablecoins for settlement, incurring FX conversions and spreads before any payment is made.
But SCRYPT is eliminating this intermediate conversion by enabling direct settlement corridors for local African currencies into stablecoins.
This development allows businesses to move from local currency to stablecoin settlement in a single licensed transaction, without first sourcing rationed bank dollars, as stablecoins are increasingly becoming settlement infrastructure rather than an investment product.
The expansion adds settlement support across four African currencies: the Kenyan shilling (KES), Tanzanian shilling (TZS), Rwandan franc (RWF) and Ugandan shilling (UGX). Each corridor is delivered through the same full-stack infrastructure our clients already use for trading, custody and treasury operations.
Speaking on this, the chief executive of SCRYPT, Norman Wooding, said, “Across Africa, stablecoin adoption is driven by economic need, not speculation.
“Businesses here are not chasing yield; they are trying to pay suppliers and manage treasury without losing margin to a banking system that rations dollars. Licensed, fair-rate dollar access is the clearest proof of what this infrastructure is for.”
Also commenting, the Managing Director of Markets & Trading at SCRYPT, Mr Gabriel Titopoulos, said, “Until now, reaching stablecoins from local African currencies meant buying scarce dollars and incurring several layers of conversion costs.
“SCRYPT removes this friction. Firms and payment providers can now settle straight from local currencies through live corridors, with local partners.”
World
African Graduates Association Promoting Multifaceted Initiatives With Russian Educational Institutions
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
In preparations for the third Russia-Africa Summit, scheduled for late October 2026, Dr Francois Ngan, deputy chairman of the Union of Associations of African Graduates of Soviet and Russian Universities, during an official working visit, has held a consultative meeting with Professor Vladimir Filippov, the President of the Russian University of Peoples’ Friendship (RUDN), and former Minister of Higher Education of Russia, Chairman of the National Commission for Accreditation of Higher Education.
RUDN is an educational institution established in 1960, primarily to provide higher education to Third World students. It has now become a popular multidisciplinary spot for many students, especially from developing countries. The university offers various academic programmes and has research infrastructure that comprises laboratories and interdisciplinary centres. The university is named after the former Congolese leader, Patrice Lumumba.
Dr Francois Ngan and Professor Filippov discussed the importance of the Graduates Association as a continental platform dedicated to strengthening unity, cooperation, and promoting shared progress among African graduates who studied in the former Soviet Union and in the Russian Federation. They also reviewed multifaceted initiatives that could bring together alumni associations from across Africa, whose members obtained education and professional training, and cultural experiences in Soviet and Russian institutions of higher learning.
Professor Filippov expressed optimism in addressing emerging challenges as a result of shifting geopolitical changes, emphasised strategic cooperation in the educational sphere with Africa, in general, and with the Republic of Cameroon, in particular, and further about the integration of African students during their studies in the Russian Federation.
The meeting also touched on academic and scientific work, the possibility of rewriting a scientific thesis, and the official organisation of transferring versions translated into six languages for the library of RUDN. Significant questions relating to Russia’s educational opportunities, collaborations and partnerships involving African countries were thoroughly discussed.
The Union of Associations of African Graduates of Soviet and Russian Universities was created under one continental umbrella to promote friendship, for professional networking, to engage in cultural exchange, and with particular emphasis on forging strategic cooperation between Africa and Russia.
World
Russia to Support Industrial Growth, Technological Advancement and Supply Chain Resilience across Africa
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
With the heightening of geopolitical rivalry and competition, a new Russia-Africa working group has emerged as a significant institutional mechanism and plans to focus on facilitating and monitoring strategic investments, industrialisation, and infrastructural development—the Strategic Action Plan 2023-2026—that was outlined during the second Russia-Africa summit, in St.Petersburg, the second largest city in the Russian Federation.
While substantial progress has, largely, lagged on the multidimensional economic front with Africa primarily due to its internal difficulties and the complexity of relations with its former Soviet neighbours, Russian officials believe there still remains huge untapped potential in strengthening bilateral cooperation. As planned, President Vladimir Putin has already signed an executive order that directs Moscow to host the forthcoming third Russia-Africa summit in October 2026.
On June 30, a regular meeting of the Business Council on Africa was held under the chairmanship of the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry. It was dedicated to issues of trade, economic and investment cooperation with Africa. The group discussed the current state and prospects for the implementation of policy initiatives with an emphasis on assisting the countries of the continent, strengthening their economic, energy, technological and food sovereignty, as well as training specialists for Africa.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has reiterated that Russia-Africa relations primarily depend on an understanding of the importance of collective action based on the principles of equality, mutual respect and resolving common tasks. In the past few years, Russia-Africa cooperation has been noticeably strengthening. “We are deepening political dialogues, developing bilateral contacts with African countries, promoting cordial cooperation between ministries and departments, and expanding humanitarian exchanges. We are also continuing the structural diversification of trade partnerships and economic dimensions.”
“Next on the agenda is the launch of diplomatic missions in The Gambia, Liberia, Togo, and the Union of the Comoros,” Lavrov said at a meeting of the Business Council under the Russian foreign minister. Lavrov noted that Russian embassies began operating in three other African countries in 2025: Niger, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan. A new Department for Partnership with Africa was also established. According to the top diplomat, “expanding Russia’s diplomatic presence on the continent contributes to developing relations.”
There are already 45 Russian embassies operating in Africa. The Russian foreign minister noted that Moscow is quickly rebuilding its presence in African countries, which sharply declined during the collapse of the Soviet Union. “There will be literally four or five countries left where we still need to establish full-fledged embassies, and then, we will have 100 per cent coverage of the entire African continent with our diplomatic presence,” Lavrov emphasised.
After the first summit in October 2019, the Foreign Ministry also created the Secretariat of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum. Its main tasks include controlling the roadmap to Africa’s multidimensional cooperation and guiding potential Russian investors to the continent. This also underscored the priority and post-Soviet solidarity Russia currently attaches to its policy towards Africa, within the growing framework of the emerging new architecture of multipolarity in the Global South.
In an interview in June 2026, the director of the Department of Partnership with Africa at the Foreign Ministry, Tatyana Dovgalenko, shared a few insights in the lead-up to the third summit. Furthermore, Dovgalenko explained that Russia would move away from security to concentrate more on economic issues, especially to team up with African colleagues to streamline mechanisms for implementing projects that will ensure food security and agriculture, and help Africa in installing processing facilities to support its self-sufficiency. She also emphasised energy and vital infrastructures, and the third direction was to simultaneously work more coherently with sub-regional organisations.
Over the past few years, bilateral relations have been increasing. There are positive dynamics in trade turnover, estimated at $30 billion. Steps are being taken to build payment systems, preferably in national currencies, while Russia looks to open four more diplomatic offices, bringing the total to 48 across Africa. Russia is currently training 37,000 African students, but only approximately 1/3 on state scholarships in Russia’s educational institutions. “We are ready to share valuable experiences of building a sovereign development model with African partners to achieve self-reliant economic growth based on their own resources and capabilities. Russia aims at creating processing capabilities and localising production, and provides access to advanced technological solutions,” underlined Dovgalenko in her interview with New Eastern Outlook.
For African countries that have endured difficult decades on the path to political independence, it is now important to take full control over the untapped resources, direct income and revenue toward stimulating the national economic sector, rather than paying for the well-being of the Western “golden billion” during this changing geopolitical era, according to Dovgalenko.
According to reports, the forthcoming Russia-Africa summit will have an economic agenda, including the digital economy, technology, artificial intelligence, healthcare, investment, and settlements in global trade. Of course, the agenda will also cover Africa’s political aspects. But if African friends bring along any specific ideas, Russia will give them serious attention. In addition, with continuity and consistency, pay increased attention to expanding ties with Africa’s regional integration associations.
Going forward, the focus will be on translating strong trade relations into deeper investment partnerships, fostering technology collaboration, strengthening industrial linkages and contributing towards the shared objectives set by the leadership of both African countries and Russia. At the third summit, the above-mentioned specific initiatives will be further designed. In this regard, the key document, the new action plan for the next three-year period (2027-2029), is intended to reflect dynamic realities in the future relations of Russia and Africa
