World
Explainer: How Kazakhstan Steadily Exploring Africa
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic, has been exploring and developing multifaceted relations with Africa. As an independent republic since the collapse of the Soviet era in 1991, Kazakhstan values its freedom in choosing external partners as well as devising strategic mechanisms for bolstering and positioning its activities on regional and global stages. The Foreign Ministry offers necessary guidelines and directions and exercises powers in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
It has been laying the groundwork which aims at taking its geopolitical relationship to an appreciable high level with Africa. The most dramatic sign of its courtship of Africa, however, was Nursultan Nazarbayev’s official visit to Africa. His trip to South Africa – his first-ever bilateral visit to this African country – underscores the importance Kazakhstan attaches to building political, economic and cultural ties with the continent. (Nazarbayev did visit Johannesburg in 2002 to attend the UN summit.)
In addition to that, Kazakhstan continued taking steady strategic result-oriented steps since it opened its diplomatic representations in a few African countries, including Ethiopia, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa, and later in 2013, obtained an observer status with the African Union. That gives it access to several meetings and multilateral conferences attended by the 54 African countries.
Erlan Idrissov was one of the foreign ministers. He served from 2012 to 2016. At the Astana Economic Forum held in May 2015, Erlan Idrissov put Kazakhstan and Africa in an excellent perspective when he said: “Kazakhstan had built a stronger economy and social safety net, we started turning a keen eye on Africa. Now is the time for Kazakhstan to pay even more attention to the continent. Africa is a continent with huge potential. It is rich in human capital, and much of its population is young. It’s time to invest in them.”
During the past decade, at least Kazakhstan has taken steps to put its planned economic ties into forward-looking and result-oriented perspectives. It has also been crafting new political and economic systems and attempting to incorporate them into developing foreign relations with Africa.
Kazakhstan has stepped up its courtship of Africa, exploring various sectors by the common principle that if Kazakhstan and Africa strengthen their ties as planned, then the people of the continent will certainly be among the beneficiaries. It has had good political relations with a number of countries on the continent till the present.
It continues looking forward to a strong presence in diversified sectors and strengthening its economic partnerships, attempting to raise trade with Africa. According to research reports, the other priority sectors for mutual cooperation and collaboration, including agriculture, agro-processing, energy and industrialization, health care delivery, culture and education with Africa.
In relation to trade, it has working contacts with African countries. For instance, in early November 2022, the Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Association held a virtual meeting under the theme – Promoting Trade and Investment between Kazakhstan and Ethiopia – with their counterparts in Kazakhstan to discuss ways to cooperate in business and investment. The Ministry of Trade and Integration and various corporate heads of enterprises from Kazakhstan attended the meeting.
Addressing the participants, Kazakhstan Ambassador to Ethiopia, B.Sadyakov, said Kazakhstan and Ethiopia have maintained “an excellent relationship” based on friendship and mutual support. According to Sadyakov, both countries have “a very good prospect in all areas of cooperation” and underlined the need to grow the relationship, said the ambassador.
Addis Ababa Chamber’s Deputy Secretary General Zekarias Assefa said that the current trade and investment ties between the two countries are promising, show a positive signal to embark on further economic ties and must necessarily be promoted in the near future.
Statistical figures between African countries and Kazakhstan are staggering, but the above illustrates there is a huge potential for interaction that needs action between Kazakhstan and Africa. Our monitoring shows that African business communities are targeting Kazakhstan as one of their trade and investment destinations in the Eurasian region.
The Eurasian region comprises five members – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. There are Moldova and Uzbekistan as observers from the geographical region. Of course, Kazakhstan, after Russia and Belarus, is cooperative in terms of business approach and has diverse business opportunities and potentials among Eurasian members.
In the context of expanding collaboration with Africa, there are good prospects for establishing mutually beneficial relations in agriculture and mining, as well as the participation of Kazakh companies in implementing infrastructure projects. Africa is also a huge market for the possible export of Kazakhstan’s grain.
Kazakhstan is one of the world’s top 10 exporters of grain but has had limited sales in Africa. Egypt, the world’s largest grain importer, has been the only African country to make substantial purchases from Kazakhstan. It, however, hopes to change that with stepped-up marketing campaigns and new transportation routes to the continent. One of the routes is a rail line that can carry Kazakhstan gain through Turkmenistan to Persian Gulf ports in Iran, where it can be shipped to Africa.
Kazakhstan’s economic relations with South Africa, a BRICS member, are developing faster than with any other sub-Saharan African country. South Africa exported only $3.5 million worth of goods to Kazakhstan. The main items were fruits and vegetables. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan exported even less to South Africa – $1.8 million in goods. Chemicals accounted for almost all of it.
During Nazarbayev’s visit to Pretoria, the economic deals signed between Kazakhstan and South Africa hoped to see more of military vehicles and bus-making joint ventures. The venture, whose partners are Paramount Group, Kazakhstan Engineering and Kazakhstan Engineering Distribution, agreed to assemble vehicles at a renovated plant in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana.
The facility cranked out up to 360 vehicles in late 2015. Kazakhstan said the plant should meet the bulk of its military-vehicle needs. Plans are for a sizable percentage of the output to be exported. That compared, Kazakhstan’s economic ties with three of the other BRICS nations – Russia, China and India – are in the hundreds of millions to billions of dollars. As with South Africa, ties between Kazakhstan and Brazil are still developing.
In addition to trade and investment, Kazakhstan offers education and training for African students. “A few years ago, we started turning a keen eye on Africa. We believe it is a historic time when Africa should receive a full focus,” Erlan Idrissov stressed as far back as 2015. “We recognise that Africa is a continent with huge potential. It has enormous human capital and a large, young population. Everything depends on people, especially investment in people.”
According to the latest information obtained for this article from the Ministry of Education, the report highlighted that Kazakhstan-financed educational courses are offered to students from the African continent. The groups study the fields of energy, medicine and agriculture. There are an estimated 5,000 African students in various institutes and universities in Almaty and Astana. Among the projects in the cultural sphere is to improve the performance and quality of teaching at Nur-Mubarak University in Almaty, so its graduates can be granted the right to enrol directly into master’s courses at Al-Azhar University in Cairo.
Meanwhile, Kazakh universities have been consolidating their positions on the world stage year by year. QS World University Rankings 2022 included 14 Kazakh universities in the list, and Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022 included three universities.
The number of educational programs in English has increased within the country, with the number of qualified foreign specialists rising as a result. They share their experience with local educators and also teach students new technologies and research methods. Nazarbayev University (NU) is very popular among foreign students from the United States, Europe, Africa and Middle East countries.
Reports indicate that Egyptian authorities are promoting a series of activities aimed at promoting Egyptian tourist destinations among the citizens of Kazakhstan. Another exciting prospect is regular Sharm el-Sheikh-Almaty-Sharm el-Sheikh flights and also Cairo-Astana-Cairo flights.
Humanitarian questions are also high on the agenda. It raises concern about the persistent conflicts on the continent, especially in the Horn of Africa and the sub-Saharan Sahel. Interesting to note that Astana is a supporter of the active interaction of the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) and African Union with questions related to African conflict resolution and ensuring interethnic and inter-religious dialogue, poverty eradication and illiteracy, as well as the fight against a variety of illnesses and diseases.
Nevertheless, Kazakhstan has shown concern about the continent’s humanitarian challenges by providing food relief to Somalia and donating $350,000 to an international fund to fight Ebola. This is one tip of the iceberg. In the process of forging closer relations, Kazakhstan has identified obstacles, including geographic remoteness of the countries, absence of direct transport links and lack of information about one other.
Despite these, the relations are still advancing. Kazakhstan’s political stability and achievements in the fields of agriculture, technology and finance, however, can ensure future successful cooperation between the country and the continent. Kazakhstan is creating a sub-regional hub for multilateral diplomacy in its southern capital of Almaty. As a result, interregional cooperation could be initiated between Central Asia and Africa.
In broader terms, Kazakhstan has been an active participant in South-South cooperation. Its efforts in the areas of development exchange and cooperation provide a good opportunity for African countries, said UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa (RBA) Strategy and Analysis Team Chief Ayodele Odusola.
“One thing that is very clear to us as a key partner with the Kazakh government is that South-South cooperation has become an effective strategy of development solutions in developing countries, especially in Africa. We feel it is quite important for us to move this issue of South-South cooperation to the next level,” he noted.
Odusola added statistics indicate Africa will contribute 54 per cent of the total population growth expected worldwide by 2050 and 82 per cent by 2100, which, in turn, requires consolidating efforts.
“There are a number of lessons and experiences that can be shared between Kazakhstan and many African countries, essentially in the areas where Kazakhstan is doing very well when it comes to the issues of industrialisation and mechanised agriculture,” he told The Astana Times and added that Kazakhstan and many African countries have similarities in the structure of the economy.
Under Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the new Foreign Policy Concept of Kazakhstan indicates Africa as one of the top priorities regions and plans to establish more diplomatic relations with the majority of African countries. The document says that Astana is observing the current political and economic transformations with great interest in Africa.
“We can see a serious geopolitical struggle between the major powers of the world for its rich natural resources. At the same time, it is a rather complex region where peace, stability and security have been significantly undermined. Kazakhstan intends to significantly contribute to the establishment of safety on the continent and further support the process of attaining sustainable development,” it says in part.
Kazakhstan and Africa coordinate well at the African Union and similarly at the United Nations. Some African countries are doing their individual homework and trying to become a real partnering force, as Kazakhstan is transforming in the 2050 development programme set for itself, so also the continent has its own 2063 Agenda fixed by the African Union.
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.
