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 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.
