World
Tracking Success Stories of Africa Leaders Summit in Washington
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
Under the chairmanship of U.S. President Joe Biden, the second edition of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit held mid-December has practically registered significant successes. The first summit was in 2014 during the presidency of Barack Obama; the administration officials in reports have, however, acknowledged regret for the long gap.
The landmark summit offered the platform for 49 African leaders + the African Union to highlight both new and longstanding challenges and to pitch their collective expectations and aspirations in the emerging new global world.
African leaders are equally looking to voice out conveniently its development directions into the future as external forces are competing for consistent political and economic influence across Africa. The U.S. does not chart routine slogans but offers a better comparative option to African partners.
- Biden administration is closing up the gap. African leaders will return with a cheerful smile and great satisfaction. The White House, during the first day of arrival in Washington, announced a $55-billion commitment to Africa over the next three years across various sectors. The U.S. is sending the best technologies and innovations, attempting to maintain the highest standards in the market and further looking for direct investment in Africa, but argued that it would remain the “partner of choice” in Africa.
It was in consultation with African partners to show a new era of partnership and broad-based commitment to the critical development issues that matter most to Africa. Therefore, the United States is defining its relationship with Africa in African terms.
- In addition, Biden has urged that the African Union, which represents 55 African states, be given a seat in the Group of 20, an influential collection of the strongest economies in the world. South Africa is the only member of the continent. Biden has thrown his backing behind the African Union getting permanent membership in the Group of 20 during the summit, which enhances economic ties in its own right.
Even before the summit officially began, the White House announced Biden’s support for the African Union in becoming a permanent member of the Group of 20 nations and that it had appointed Johnnie Carson, a well-regarded veteran diplomat, to serve as point person for implementing initiatives that come out of the summit.
- The United States’ two-way trade with sub-Saharan Africa was $44.9 billion last year, a 22% increase from 2019, while foreign direct investment into the region fell by 5.3% to $30.3 billion in 2021.
In January 2021, the African Continental Free Trade Area – designed to be the world’s biggest free-trade zone by area when it kicks into full gear in 2030 – already became operational and made headways. The initiative is likely to become a key pillar in facilitating trade between the US and Africa. The bloc has a potential market of 1.3 billion people with a combined gross domestic product of $2.6 trillion.
Wamkele Mene, Secretary-General of AfCFTA, and his counterpart US Trade Representative Katherine Tai are preparing to sign a memorandum to create a platform for ongoing work. “We’ve consistently seen that there are opportunities for the program to be better – there could be much better uptake and utilization of the program,” Katherine Tai said in Washington. Asked about her vision for the evolution of the program, Tai said the United States would like to explore the “middle ground” between the current AGOA system and traditional full free trade agreements and develop new relationships that are focused on “resilience and inclusion.”
It is described as “incredibly supportive” of the continental-integration efforts and promotes trade and economic cooperation between the two regions. It is meant to assist the economies of sub-Saharan Africa and improve economic relations between the United States and Africa. With the next phase in mind, new legislation to facilitate trade offers a basis for widening overall economic ties with Africa.
Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa, Chris Van Hollen, and Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Karen Bass, proposed legislation to increase US assistance to implement the African free-trade area. That requires developing an interagency, long-term strategy on infrastructure development and technical support to promote African continental trade. The African Growth and Opportunity Act, which expires in 2025 and also gives about three dozen African countries duty-free access to the world’s biggest economy for almost 7,000 products.
- Biden has signed an executive order to establish the President’s Advisory Council on African Diaspora Engagement in the United States as Washington seeks to deepen ties with the region. It will advise the president on a range of issues. African-American and African-immigrant communities will coordinate various emerging questions in government, business, social work, sports and other areas. The African Diaspora includes African Americans, descendants of enslaved Africans, and nearly 2 million African immigrants.
According to World Bank Statistics, remittance inflows to Sub-Saharan Africa soared 14.1 per cent to $49 billion in 2021, following an 8.1 per cent decline in the prior year. Beyond remittances, Africa stands to benefit from the input of its diaspora, considered the most progressive in some of the most developed countries in the world.
Ultimately, African leaders have to engage with their diaspora, excelling in sports, academia, business, science, technology, engineering and all those other significant sectors that the continent needs to beef up to optimize its potential and meet development priorities.
“African voices are essential to solving global problems. To elevate these voices, one of our primary focuses is to widen our circle of engagement to include African Diaspora communities,” Dana Banks, Special Assistant to the President and Special Adviser for the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, said. “It will advise the President on a wide range of issues, enhance the dialogue between U.S. officials and the African Diaspora, and strengthen cultural, social, political, and economic ties between African communities, the global African Diaspora, and the United States.”
- Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo sounded the alarm about petering private investment in the middle- and low-income countries, particularly in Africa. The infrastructure finance gap, or money needed for essential projects like lighting homes and businesses, responding to the coronavirus pandemic and to making communities resilient against extreme weather, sits at $68 billion to $108 billion per year, Adeyemo said.
At the same time, Adeyemo lamented that huge amounts of private capital among wealthy nations around the globe remain untapped. “There is a clear disconnect between a large amount of available private sector capital and the urgent need to fund critical infrastructure projects in Africa and elsewhere. The question for us is: how do we connect this massive supply of savings with high-quality infrastructure projects in Africa?” Adeyemo said at the U.S. Trade and Development Agency.
Trade between the U.S. and sub-Saharan Africa was $44.9 billion last year, a 22% increase from 2019. But foreign direct investment into the region fell by 5.3% to $30.31 billion in 2021. According to reports, trade between Africa and China last year surged to $254 billion last year, up about 35% as Chinese exports increased on the continent.
Ahead of the symbolic gatherings, Witney Schneidman, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs during the Clinton administration, said focusing on China and Russia would distract from the more important topic of U.S. private sector investment.
The simple fact is that African leaders arriving in the U.S. capital are clamouring for more U.S. business in the region, he said, were a glaring gap has led to the U.S. ceding Africa not just to China but also to the European Union, India, Turkey and other countries that have invested in the region in recent years.
According to reports, the summit was to “really highlight how the United States and African partners are strengthening partnerships and advancing shared priorities and indicate a reflection of the U.S. strategy towards sub-Saharan Africa and the African Union’s Agenda 2063, both of which emphasize the critical importance of the region in meeting this era’s defining challenges.”
The irreversible fact is that the United States is broadening its engagement and partnership, reviewing institutional capacity and strategic approach towards offering a comprehensive relationship based on mutual respect and values, while African leaders are also pushing for advancing efforts at achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Agenda 2063 of the African Union.
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
