World
First-hand Account of American Businesswoman at US-Africa Leaders’ Summit
By Robin Tolkan-Doyle and Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
On December 14, Rahama Wright, founder/CEO of Shea Yeleen Enterprises (Shea Yeleen and the Yeleen Beauty Makerspace), took part in the Prosper Africa Deal Room at the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington DC to address leading US and African businesses, investors, and government leaders about fostering economic and community development between both nations through the beauty ingredient supply chain in Africa, and the positive environmental impact of social enterprise.
Her beauty brand, Shea Yeleen, makes premium natural shea butter skincare products that nourish the skin and empower its producers in northern Ghana. Since 2003, Rahama has worked at the intersection of beauty, business development, and policy and is passionate about creating opportunities for women in the United States and Africa.
Wright is currently developing the Yeleen Beauty Makerspace, a co-manufacturing space for early-stage beauty entrepreneurs in Washington, DC. The Makerspace will create 200 jobs in an underserved area of the nation’s capital and provide a platform for a new wave of business owners to develop skills and scale production, disrupting an industry in which Black-owned brands generate revenue less than a quarter of what Black consumers spend. This manufacturing facility will be the first commercial shared facility designed to support women and founders of colour in the beauty industry in the United States.
Wright has served on the President’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa since 2014. She previously served in the Peace Corps and has been a guest speaker at the United Nations, State Department State, World Bank, Global Entrepreneurship Summit, and the Sustainable Brands Conference.
During the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit held here in Washington, Robin Tolkan-Doyle and Kestér Kenn Klomegâh had the chance to talk with her about the changing Africa’s business landscape and how she has uniquely positioned herself as a change-maker through the multi-billion dollar beauty industry. Here are the excerpts from the snapshot interview:
Why is the Prosper Africa Deal Room at the US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington important for you?
The Deal Room is an incredible opportunity to amplify our work to create inclusive African supply chains in the US beauty industry. We are joined by one of our cooperative partners, Gladys Petey and Deputy Mayor John Falcicchio. The summit offers us an opportunity to promote business and forge new connections with African leaders. It is also a platform for gauging and setting a goal of empowering African women through the production and sale of natural beauty products. Our company already sources its shea butter from women-owned cooperatives in Burkina Faso and uses a portion of its profits to fund education and entrepreneurship programs for women.
By the way, what are the driving reasons and motivating factors for starting women’s beauty brands?
Women in Africa have been contributing to the global beauty industry as raw material suppliers. By helping them develop value-added ingredients and connecting those ingredients to beauty manufacturing in DC, we will increase their wages and create better jobs. Additionally, working with early-stage beauty businesses led by founders of colour creates opportunities for residents in DC. It’s a win-win partnership that propels more investment in underserved communities and increases market share for women entrepreneurs in the $60 billion US beauty industry.
Building a successful business requires certain qualities. What challenges do you envisage in the landscape? Can you share a bit of these with our audience or readers?
Our goal is to address inequality in the beauty industry by creating better jobs for African suppliers and supporting new and growing beauty brands in DC. We know, of course, there are existing challenges to overcome. Our biggest challenge is how to create jobs in an underserved area across Africa, connect with a new wave of business owners to develop skills and scale production, and raise an industry in which Black-owned brands generate revenue. We are passionate about helping businesses succeed in Africa.
Ensuring you have the endurance and persistence to build a successful business is very important because success often does not happen overnight. Staying powerful requires a true commitment and passion for the solution you are bringing to market. This challenge requires the visionary to make sure they have balance and the right support network and systems around them.
Another challenge is access to the right capital to invest in growing your business. Money flows through people, so it’s key to have trusted relationships that create the right networks to access the right sized capital for your business. The last challenge I will touch on is hiring the right team and talent. Finding the people who have both the skill set and the commitment to help grow a business can sometimes feel impossible. It requires having a clear recruiting and onboarding process and effectively vetting each candidate.
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
