Standard Bank Hosts 2nd African Markets Conference

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The second African Markets Conference (AMC) will take place in Cape Town, South Africa, from Sunday, February to Tuesday, February 24, 2026.

The event, hosted by Standard Bank, will bring together global institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds, and African policymakers to catalyse the flow of capital into the continent’s most critical sectors.

The theme for this year’s edition is Mobilising Global Capital at Scale for Africa’s Growth and Development.

AMC 2026 will host a high-level delegation of decision-makers, ensuring that the dialogue leads to tangible commitments.

The conference will be structured around five high-impact pillars designed to move the needle on investment, including prioritising infrastructure as an asset class, accelerating the energy transition, deepening African capital markets and mobilising private capital, enabling intra-African trade and flows of capital, and addressing Africa’s sovereign debt and cost sustainability.

It is estimated that by 2050, Africa will add one billion people, more than half in cities, yet it invests only $75 billion of the $150 billion it needs annually for infrastructure. Standard Bank aims to use AMC 2026 to ensure that African priorities remain at the centre of the global financial discourse.

“This year’s engagement bridges the gap between policy ambitions and market realities. Africa urgently needs practical measures to deepen capital pools, improve market liquidity, and strengthen regulatory frameworks that give investors the confidence to deploy capital at scale.

“Mobilising capital is not just about funding projects; it is about building the foundation of a more balanced and inclusive global economy,” the chief executive of Corporate and Investment Banking at Standard Bank Group, Luvuyo Masinda, stated.