Join Precious Motsepe, Founder of African Fashion International, for an intimate fireside conversation about her journey building one of the continent's most influential fashion platforms. From championing emerging African designers to staging Africa's premier fashion weeks, Motsepe shares her vision for the creative economy as a driver of economic growth and cultural pride across the continent.

This inter-ministerial panel explores how Uganda is navigating the path from potential to execution, examining the role of government leadership in driving innovation, technology, and economic transformation. Featuring senior government officials, the session offers insights into how African nations can build institutional capacity and strategic partnerships to accelerate development.

This panel brings together leading fintech entrepreneurs and investors to explore what it really takes to build and scale financial technology platforms across Africa. From navigating regulatory complexity to unlocking new markets, panelists will share hard-won insights on the strategies driving the next wave of African fintech innovation and financial inclusion.

Africa's beauty economy is booming, driven by a new generation of entrepreneurs who are building global brands rooted in the continent's rich biodiversity and cultural heritage. This panel explores how African beauty founders are owning the value chain — from sourcing to manufacturing to distribution — and creating products that resonate with consumers worldwide.

Entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA) is emerging as a powerful pathway for a new generation of African business leaders to acquire, transform, and scale existing enterprises across the continent. This panel brings together practitioners and investors to discuss the unique opportunities and challenges of the ETA model in African markets, from deal sourcing to post-acquisition value creation.

The African venture capital landscape is maturing rapidly, with new fund models, deeper pools of capital, and more sophisticated investors emerging across the continent. This panel brings together leading VCs to discuss how the industry is rewriting its own rules — moving beyond hype cycles to build sustainable, thesis-driven investment strategies that align with Africa's unique market dynamics.

The Caribbean and Africa share deep historical, cultural, and economic bonds that are being revitalized by a new generation of leaders, entrepreneurs, and institutions. This panel explores the growing opportunities for trade, investment, and collaboration between the two regions, and how strengthening these ties can create mutual prosperity and amplify shared voices on the global stage.

In a world of shifting alliances and great power competition, Africa is no longer content to be a passive player. This panel examines how African nations and leaders are designing partnerships on their own terms — balancing relationships with traditional Western allies, China, and emerging partners — to maximize the continent's strategic interests and economic sovereignty.

As the global philanthropic landscape evolves, a new generation of African givers and institutions are reimagining what effective philanthropy looks like on the continent. This panel explores how African-led philanthropic models can move beyond dependency on external donors, center local knowledge and agency, and channel resources toward the initiatives that matter most to African communities.

Join Moulay Mhamed Elalamy, CEO of Saham Group, and Tope Lawani, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Helios Investment Partners, for a keynote exploring the dynamics of capital, control, and economic agency across the African continent.

Join Hajar Alafifi, CEO of OCP Africa, and Olasunkanmi Owoyemi, Managing Director of Sunbeth Global Concepts, for a keynote on the opportunities and challenges of building Africa's agrifood sector to feed a billion people.

Join CrossBoundary for a lunch-and-learn on investment advisory and asset management in frontier markets. Learn how CrossBoundary is unlocking private capital flows into Africa's most underserved markets and creating scalable investment models for the continent.

Join this special lunch session for the launch of How We Made It in Africa, followed by a Q&A with the author. Explore the stories, strategies, and lessons behind some of the most successful businesses built on the African continent.

Join One Acre Fund for a lunch-and-learn on their mission to make smallholder farmers across Africa more productive and prosperous. Learn about their model of providing financing, training, and market access to millions of farming families across the continent.

Join Saham for a lunch-and-learn session exploring the group's role in building financial services and insurance infrastructure across Africa. Discover how Saham is expanding access to critical financial products and driving inclusive economic growth across the continent.

Join OCP Group for an exclusive lunch-and-learn exploring how one of the world's largest phosphate producers is driving agricultural innovation and food security across Africa. Learn about OCP's investments in sustainable fertilizer production and their vision for transforming African agriculture.

Join Research ICT Africa (RiA) for a lunch-and-learn exploring how digital policy and ICT research are shaping Africa's technological future. Learn about the critical role of evidence-based research in driving digital inclusion and innovation across the continent.

Join this special lunch screening of Lobito Bound, followed by a moderated Q&A session. The documentary explores the ambitious Lobito Atlantic Railway corridor connecting Angola, Zambia, and the DRC — a transformative infrastructure project reshaping trade and development across southern Africa.

Join Dupe Olusola, CEO of Transcorp Hotels, for an intimate fireside conversation about leadership, resilience, and the future of Africa's hospitality and tourism industry. Olusola shares her journey building one of the continent's premier hospitality brands and the opportunities she sees for the sector in driving economic growth and job creation across Africa.

This panel explores the pivotal role of the public sector in fostering Africa's economic transformation through effective policymaking and institutional innovation. By examining lessons from across the continent, panelists will highlight how strategic governance, sound monetary policy, and strong institutions have laid the groundwork for thriving private sector growth and long-term prosperity.

Africa holds a disproportionate share of the world's critical minerals essential for the global energy transition, from cobalt and lithium to rare earth elements. This panel examines how African nations can leverage their mineral wealth strategically — ensuring equitable partnerships, local value addition, and sovereign control over resources that will shape the global economy for decades to come.

Despite flashes of global attention, African fashion brands often struggle to achieve lasting prominence. This panel brings together leading designers and fashion entrepreneurs to discuss how Africa's fashion industry can build on its unique strengths — local artisanship, sustainability, and cultural richness — to create commercially viable brands that compete and win on the world stage.

African music is dominating global charts, but who owns the value being created? This panel brings together artists, label executives, and media entrepreneurs to discuss how Africans are taking ownership of their music and media industries — from IP rights and distribution to building platforms that keep value on the continent.

African cinema is experiencing a renaissance, with stories from the continent capturing global audiences and generating significant commercial returns. This panel explores the business of African film — from financing and distribution to content creation and intellectual property — and how investors and creators can work together to build a thriving, self-sustaining African film industry.

East Africa is home to some of the continent's most dynamic and innovative business ecosystems. This lunch session shines a spotlight on the entrepreneurs, enterprises, and ecosystems driving growth across the region — from Nairobi's tech scene to Addis Ababa's manufacturing ambitions — and explores what makes East African business unique and globally competitive.

Africa's luxury hospitality sector is experiencing a new wave of investment and innovation, with world-class properties and homegrown brands redefining the continent's tourism landscape. This panel brings together leaders from Africa's premier hospitality brands to discuss what it takes to build, finance, and operate high-end hospitality ventures that showcase Africa's unique cultural heritage and natural beauty to the world.

As the global AI race intensifies, Africa has a unique opportunity to own its AI transition rather than be a passive recipient of technology built elsewhere. This panel brings together leaders in AI infrastructure, talent development, and market formation to explore how the continent can build the compute capacity, cultivate the technical talent, and create the market conditions needed to compete and lead in the AI era.

Africa's energy transition represents one of the continent's greatest challenges and most transformative opportunities. This panel brings together energy leaders and innovators to discuss how renewable energy, infrastructure financing, and policy reform can work together to close the energy access gap and drive sustainable industrialization across the continent.

African athletes are capturing the world's attention, but the business infrastructure behind them is still being built. This panel explores how marketing, management, and representation in African sports are evolving — from athlete branding and endorsement deals to league development and media rights — and what it will take to build a thriving, African-owned sports industry.

Africa's cities are growing faster than anywhere else on the planet, creating an unprecedented demand for affordable housing. This panel explores innovative approaches to financing, building, and governing housing at scale — from new construction technologies to creative policy frameworks — that can help African cities meet the needs of their rapidly expanding populations.

Cryptocurrency and stablecoins are emerging as powerful tools for solving some of Africa's most persistent financial challenges — from expensive cross-border remittances to volatile local currencies. This panel explores how crypto rails are being built across the continent, the regulatory landscape, and whether digital assets can deliver on their promise of a more inclusive and efficient African payments ecosystem.

Join Yvonne Ike, Managing Director at Bank of America, for an intimate conversation about the state of African capital markets, cross-border finance, and the investment opportunities she sees for the continent in an evolving global economy. Ike brings decades of experience at the intersection of global banking and African markets.

Africa's healthcare systems face critical challenges: reducing reliance on foreign aid, addressing the shift from infectious to non-communicable diseases, and expanding access to care. This panel explores practical and innovative models to transform pharmaceutical development and manufacturing on the continent, moving Africa from consumer to creator in the global health value chain.

Africa's creative economy is surging, driven by a new generation of artists, designers, and cultural entrepreneurs who are building communities and platforms that amplify African creativity on the global stage. This panel brings together leading creatives to discuss how they are building sustainable careers, fostering creative communities, and ensuring that African voices shape the future of global culture.

Behind every successful African venture is a story of grit, adaptation, and hard-won lessons. This panel brings together founders and operators who have navigated the complexities of building and scaling businesses across the continent, sharing candid insights on what it really takes — from early-stage struggles to growth-stage challenges — to build ventures that last.

Join Fred Swaniker, Founder and CEO of Sand Technologies, for a keynote exploring how technology can be harnessed as a force for good across the African continent, driving inclusive growth, innovation, and sustainable development.

Join Hakeem Belo-Osagie for a faculty address at the 28th Annual Africa Business Conference at Harvard Business School.