World
US-Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation: Challenges and Future Pathways
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
The United States government hosted trade ministers from sub-Saharan Africa for the annual African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum from July 24 to 26. Since its (AGOA) launch in 2000, this important corporate event has taken place alternately in Washington or an African city each year. Last year, it was held in South Africa. The Forum took place in Washington against the backdrop of geopolitical changes, and during an election period in the United States.
Ahead of the Forum, on July 23 there was an official statement from President Joe Biden on the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum in Washington that called on Congress to quickly reauthorize and modernize this landmark Act—which is set to expire in 2025. That America is all in on Africa. Together, let’s ensure that future generations of Americans and Africans can meet the challenges and seize the opportunities of the decades ahead.
“For more than two decades, the bipartisan African Growth and Opportunity Act has formed the bedrock of America’s economic partnership with African nations. Sub-Saharan Africa has increased the competitiveness of African products, led to the creation of tens of thousands of quality jobs, and helped advance human rights. Here at home, AGOA has created investment opportunities and new markets for American businesses. And on both sides of the Atlantic, AGOA has promoted sustainable economic growth and resilient supply chains,” President Joe Biden said in the statement.
United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Katherine Tai, at the opening ceremony of the 21st Africa Growth and Opportunity Act Forum, in the presence of African finance ministers, heads of delegation from AGOA partner countries, Secretaries-General and Commissioners of the Regional Economic Communities and the African Union, acknowledged the extraordinary collaborative job done by the African Union, the Regional Economic Communities and together with Africa’s Finance Ministers. For the last three years, the Biden-Harris Administration has focused on measures to deepen trade and strengthen economic cooperation, she said in a quick assessment in terms of performance and results.
“When President Biden asked me to serve as his Trade Representative, he gave me a directive—to use trade for the common good. This means putting workers at the centre of our trade policy because they are the backbone and engine of our economy. This also means expanding the table and lifting more voices, especially those of women, youth, the African Diaspora, and communities that have been historically overlooked. This is how we are democratizing economic opportunity and transforming the role of trade in the social contract between our government and our people,” she explained in her speech at the 21st AGOA ministerial meeting held on July 25 in Washington.
These core beliefs are the centrepiece of the trade relationship with Africa—especially AGOA. Washington officials consider AGOA’s success to date as an unshakeable potential for a new era, as a driving force to strengthen trade with Africa. And next, Africa possesses tremendous opportunity and potential. The officials further acknowledged that the world is very different from when AGOA was first enacted 24 years ago. That is why the Biden-Harris Administration not only supports the reauthorization of AGOA but also the strengthening and improvement of it to fit the rapidly changing times.
As one of the strategic steps, AGOA is closely working with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat. Besides that, AGOA is also working on a bilateral basis with many African countries, for instance with Kenya on the Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership. It has a trade collaboration with South Africa. The forward-looking model for engagement with the continent is to make AGOA more inclusive, responsive, and transformative—for all segments of the society. The simple proposition that is to capture, within the context of the geopolitical situation, both the current realities and future possibilities.
The ministerial program featured plenary sessions on the present and future of AGOA and U.S.–Africa trade and investment cooperation, as well as sessions on various topics. It was preceded by a Civil Society and Organized Labor Forum and a Private Sector Forum. It brought together senior government officials from the United States and AGOA-eligible countries, as well as representatives from continental and regional economic organizations, labour, civil society, and the private sector. Under the theme “Beyond 2025: Reimagining AGOA for an Inclusive, Sustainable and Prosperous Tomorrow,” the U.S. delegation underscored the United States’ commitment to the AGOA program and led discussions on a broad range of topics, including using AGOA to drive more inclusive and sustainable economic development for Africans and Americans and further strengthen U.S.-Africa economic relations.
During the AGOA Forum, Ambassador Tai facilitated a session with Members of Congress and African ministers on AGOA reauthorization. She also held bilateral meetings with African Union Trade Commissioner Albert Muchanga; Ghana’s Minister of Trade and Industry Kobina Tahir Hammond; Nigeria’s Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite; and South Africa’s Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Parks Tau.
Chief Agricultural Negotiator Ambassador Doug McKalip met with Angola’s Secretary for Economic Affairs Milton Parmédio dos Santos Reis and Mauritius’ Ambassador N. Chedumbarum, Head of the Economic Directorate at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration, and International Trade. Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for African Affairs Constance Hamilton met with Rwanda’s Minister of Trade and Industry Dr. Jean-Chrysostome Ngabitsinze and Kenya’s Principal Secretary for Trade Alfred K’Ombudo.
AGOA Forum participants included trade ministers from 32 AGOA-eligible countries. The U.S. delegation included Members of Congress and professional staff from the United States Congress, and senior government officials from the Department of State, the Department of Commerce, the Department of the Treasury, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Labor, the Export-Import Bank of the United States, Prosper Africa, the Small Business Administration, the United States Trade and Development Agency, the United States International Development Finance Corporation, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and the National Security Council.
Last November in Johannesburg, South Africa, AGOA held its 20th Forum and sent a powerful reminder about the giant roadmap to integrate the United States’ economic cooperation and trade with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). It plans to share common goals and corporate aspirations and to chart a path of transforming and modernizing partnerships.
The Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) expressed extremely optimistic views about the future. It shared an intertwined and inseparable history of America and Africa. This is foundational for the Biden-Harris Administration and it’s foundational for AGOA itself. The American and African companies, the private sector operators, and the African Diaspora that in this next era of AGOA be more transformative, for more people across the continent, and along the way, build a stronger productive and meaningful partnership between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa.
The Corporate Council on Africa (CCA), the leading US business association, focuses solely on connecting business interests in Africa. In 2023, CCA organized a business summit which was a tremendous success in Botswana, southern Africa. The participants – most importantly – private sector corporate executives looked at Africa and the United States in strategic dialogue on the key issues and opportunities driving U.S.-Africa trade, investment, and commercial engagement.
Dr Barbara A. Perkins, Co-Founder and President of the International Black Women’s Public Policy Institute, looked at her organization working to empower Black women from the diaspora, across a lot of different public policy areas, to become leaders. At this point of global development, given the opportunity that there is the necessity to move women professionals, with all of the change in the world, it is a particularly special moment for exploring new pathways and new ways of doing things with the most important partners across Africa. These include women entrepreneurs, and women in politics, and generally to empower them wherever they are and whatever they do – to be an incredibly important part of the program, its enormous economic potential and discover so many common values – in Africa. Worth noting that African partners share a vision around more inclusive, sustainable, durable trade policies that inform economic growth, opportunities, and industrialization.
For three solid working days, the gathering had conversations relating to how to transform the multilateral trading system to benefit more people, particularly underserved communities. It examined various ways to modernize the legislation to the benefit of people across Africa and in America. It further looked at how trade can and must help craft a fairer and more equitable future for Africa – delivering real opportunities across all segments of societies, including women, youth, the African Diaspora, and other underserved groups. The workers and their families. The women business owners. The tech entrepreneurs. Young musicians. Farmers using climate-smart agriculture. And many more. In the practical long-term, AGOA has been a bedrock to improve the livelihoods of so many people.
Over the past few years, African leaders have been advocating for large-scale structural reforms, financial inadequacies and policy approaches by multinational institutions mostly dominated by the United States. The leaders have consistently been arguing for better development finance strategies and questioned the substance of using the U.S. currency. The majority of the leaders expressed support for ‘de-dollarization’ in their external trade operations, and yet gearing to strengthen trade with Europe and the United States.
By design AGOA, for example, is a useful mechanism for improving accessibility to boost trade, competitiveness, connectivity, and productivity. With evolving contradictions and complexities, it is the right moment to capitalize on the available potential capital for accelerating development. Further to that, Africa has to strengthen its foreign revenue sources from markets where the currency has value and is convertible. Therefore, the late July 2024, African ministerial summit was devoted to review thoroughly the benefits of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
Some African strategists and research analysts indisputably believe that remittance flows are definitely one of the surest reliable sources of foreign exchange, depending solely on the dollar currency, to support trade. In its latest report in June, the World Bank indicated that, despite the geopolitical uncertainties, instability and challenges, sub-Saharan Africa’s remittance flow reached $54 billion in 2023. Looking ahead for ensuring trade between the United States and Africa therefore requires reviewing measures such as trade policy, trade facilitation, productive capacity, trade-related infrastructure, trade finance, trade information and factor-market integration. President Joe Biden has also created the African Diaspora Advisory Council as part of the presidency. It has been working closely together to deepen and fortify America’s strategic partnerships with the African diaspora in the interests of sustaining meaningful stability between Africa and the United States.
Over the past 24 years, AGOA has made a tangible difference for millions of people in Africa. New jobs. New business opportunities. New hope. AGOA has not only strengthened economic relations with the United States but also has helped create African-led solutions to the region’s challenges. And importantly, AGOA has created a community of policymakers, civil society, and business leaders, dedicated to using this forum to better the lives of everyday people. The program provides duty-free access to the US market for nearly 2,000 products from eligible countries. US imports under AGOA topped $9.7 billion last year.
Remarks by Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for African Affairs, Constance Hamilton, at the closing ceremony emphasized that the United States, as a genuine partner, is partnering for an open and fair society. Partnering for economic empowerment and inclusive prosperity—for all people. Hamilton referred to the US President’s statement. As President Biden said, “In so many ways, Africa is the future—and so when Africa succeeds, the whole world succeeds.” By 2050, one in four people in the entire world will be in Africa. That means what happens in Africa impacts the entire world.
“AGOA has played an instrumental role in realizing this vision. This is why the Biden-Harris Administration is all in on Africa,” he underlined. “We explored barriers that women, youth, MSMEs, and the African Diaspora face in accessing trade and investment opportunities and how we can use the AGOA more effectively to drive inclusive and sustainable economic growth. We explored how to better use the multilateral trading system to benefit more people, particularly underserved communities. We also discussed opportunities to modernize the AGOA program to realize its full potential as a tool for development and regional economic integration. And we discussed how the United States and AGOA partners can collectively create and promote stronger high-standard investment opportunities.”
At this point, it is just important to reiterate that AGOA primarily offers African exporters and agencies to collaborate broadly on exportable goods and services as revenue sources from the United States market. It further emphasizes the importance of enhancing bilateral investments, promoting economic growth, and creating opportunities for local businesses and entrepreneurs across Africa. AGOA, as a gateway for addressing trade and investment obstacles in the continent, is due to be extended until 2041, plus a push to align AGOA closer to the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement, which would involve opening up the program to North African countries. This was one of the results, among others, which emerged from Washington.
Crafting the future partnership largely depends on the collective efforts by the AGOA statutory U.S. agencies – including State, Treasury, Commerce and USAID – and the entire U.S. government inter-agency, and the private sector, civil society and labour stakeholders, and many other corporate entrepreneurial NGOs affiliated to AGOA. The Biden-Harris Administration is seriously committed to working on new challenges and opportunities for continued success in the coming years to impact positively on real lives across the continent. AGOA remains the cornerstone of the U.S. economic partnership with Africa.
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
Russia’s system of foreign students’ admission is currently experiencing a completely different shape, due to the rapidly shifting geopolitical reality. The emerging trends are closely connected with increasing the number of highly interested applicants rather than the quality of education. The geopolitical shift is pushing Russia to make education for young Africans an ultimate priority. The quota campaign has already begun as the figure compares favourably with previous benchmarks but, to some considerable extent, noticeable challenges are currently affecting enrollment from Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Despite that, general interest in Russian education among foreign nationals is increasing; the quota campaign confirms this trend. Last year, for instance, there were about 144,000 registrations in Rossotrudnichestvo’s Education in Russian system. The number has exceeded 160,000 in 2026. What is important here is that Russia shows preparedness to get more students from developing countries, especially from Africa and uses it as a factor for influencing its foreign policy in the region.
Regarding educational initiatives, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in conjunction with relevant agencies and organisations are active in Africa. Noticeably, Russia is developing and expanding the existing, successfully operating cooperation in the sphere of education. In fact, priority is given to projects in the field of education and training of professional personnel for African countries. Currently, over 37,000 students from Africa are studying at Russian universities. Reports say a gradual increase in the number of scholarships for African citizens and the expansion of the range of professional training programs will provide a strong incentive for further promoting education at Russian universities.
This will continue to actively strengthen inter-university ties with African partners, including through specialised umbrella organisations such as the Russian-African Network University, the Consortium of Technical Universities “Nadra Africa” based at the Empress Catherine II St. Petersburg Mining University, the Russian-African Network Transport University, and the Consortium of Russian Universities Working in West Africa based at the NGO “Centre for Public Diplomacy.”
Reports further indicated that the Rossotrudnichestvo representative offices—the Russian Science and Culture Centres—operating in eight African countries, as well as the Open Education Centres operating under the auspices of the Russian Ministry of Education in 31 African countries, serve as a solid foundation for our humanitarian presence in Africa. They serve as conduits for the Russian language and culture on the continent. It is, however, hoped that their number would only increase in the subsequent years.
While addressing the staff and students at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated Russia’s readiness to cooperate actively in the sustainable economic development and to strengthen efforts at training the needed specialists and professionals for Africa. After the collapse of the Soviet system in 1991, there were problems sustaining relations with Africa. Then, after more than a decade, Russia started to return to Africa. This process has been ongoing for the past 15 years, according to the top Russian diplomat.
According to Lavrov, these past few years have been characterised by frequent interactions between Russian and African Foreign Ministers, plethora of MoUs were signed that set out the broad parameters of cooperation. Russia’s Education Ministry and the Foreign Affairs Ministry have raised the quotas for many African countries, the highest given to Angola, Ethiopia, Namibia and Mozambique, and South Africa.
According to a report posted on the MFA website in August, for instance, some 1,120 Angolans have enrolled, on Russian scholarships or grants, at various institutes and universities throughout the Russian Federation. Figures for other African countries are available on the official information portal of the ministry.
Besides state-sponsored students, Russia’s Education Ministry has also launched a large-scale educational campaign targeting the recruitment of private foreign students into its educational institutions across the Russian Federation. The program is to be implemented until 2025, which has a website (studyinrussia) translated into different languages, seeks to boost the popularity and improve its image abroad.
Undoubtedly, Russia aims at strengthening the next generation of pro-Russian elites who will help promote its interests, including long-term ones in their home countries. With this in mind, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ultimately, hope to improve the efficiency of “soft power” in Africa, though not to the levels during the Soviet era.
Understandably, Russia is now targeting Africa’s fast-growing population as a huge potential market for knowledge transfer and export education. Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a widely circulated Russian daily newspaper, reported that Russia has been focusing on the young population in developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, targeting the elite and middle class in these markets for the export of education, which has great potential.
The newspaper reported on the advantages of multiculturalism and cross-cultural interactive activities paving the way for integration in Russian society. As far back as 2023, Russia’s Federation Council and State Duma (upper and lower houses of parliament) passed a bill. That bill was finally signed into law, allowing foreign students the right to employment, a replica of the work and study model in Western and European countries.
Professor Viktor Sadovnichy, Rector of Moscow State University and Chairman of the Russian Rectors’ Association, an organisation that unites more than 700 heads of higher education institutions, argued that education and demography are interconnected; developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America have growing middle classes. “This favours the export of our education; it has great potential cooperating in the education sphere, it could serve as a huge market – training young professionals that are in demand on the labour market,” Sadovnichy said, addressing a plenary meeting of the Russian Rectors’ Association at Peter the Great St Petersburg State Polytechnic University.
Professor Natalia Vlasova, Deputy Rector at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation of the Ural State University of Economics in Yekaterinburg, explained that many African countries are developing rapidly, and the African elites and the growing middle-class have great potential for sponsoring their children’s education abroad. “In the times of the Soviet Union, African countries were strategic partners, and now we should reactivate these relations because in the near future they will have big economic and political power. This could, indeed, be a huge market and has the business potential,” she noted assertively.
An educational survey released in September 2024, divided into five major groups, said Russia has made significant efforts at improving teaching (the learning environment), research, citations (research influence), knowledge transfer, and international outlook (staff, students, research) in the educational field, according to the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings.
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.
