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London FT Africa Summit 2016

OVERVIEW

The Financial Times will hold its third Africa summit this October after cementing the event's reputation as the leading conference in the world on African business and economics. The FT, which prides itself on the depth and breadth of its Africa coverage, will again produce a special report to coincide with the summit. Last year's event, chaired by FT Editor Lionel Barber, built on the success of the inaugural conference with a sell-out delegation and expert speakers and panellists from around the region.

Africa is entering a new phase. After a period of strong growth, underpinned by better policies and a favourable external environment, conditions are changing. Commodity prices have fallen and investors have fallen out of love with emerging markets, withdrawing money and making it more expensive for African sovereigns to borrow. Global growth is slow at best. Still, though some African commodity exporters have suffered, other African economies stand to gain from lower oil prices. Weaker African currencies may even be good news if countries are able to become more competitive and less reliant on cheap imports of manufactured goods. In the years ahead, those countries with the most effective policy frameworks and the most entrepreneurial private sectors are likely to pull away from the pack. This summit will look at the way ahead: whether by designing smart industrial policies, providing power for industry and residents, or creating a business-friendly environment, how can African economies turn the new, seemingly less benign environment, to their advantage? The FT will gather practitioners and opinion leaders from around the world to discuss these important topics.

WHY ATTEND?

The Financial Times’ third Africa Summit, chaired by the FT’s Editor Lionel Barber and Africa Editor David Pilling, which will be held this October in London. This year’s theme will be The Way Ahead. After a period of strong growth in Africa, underpinned by better policies and a favourable external environment, conditions are changing.  Listen to expert speakers and panellists from across the continent discuss how African economies can turn the new, seemingly less benign environment to their advantage.

• Hear the views of leading captains of industry, politicians and academics on where Africa is today.
• With Africa’s dearth of manufacturing, learn what can be done to address the shortfall.
• Discover what technological advances and alternative-energy solutions are being adopted to provide Africa with power.
• Debate how African countries can mobilise domestic savings for the next phase of development.

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Agenda Summary

Sunday 2 October

18.30  Welcome Reception

Hosted by Lionel Barber, Editor, Financial Times

Monday 3 October

08.00  Registration

09.00

Welcome

Lionel Barber, Editor, Financial Times

Opening Keynote Address

Akinwumi Adesina, President, African Development Bank Group

Chair: Lionel Barber, Editor, Financial Times

09.40  Taking the Temperature

After all the excitement about Africa Rising, the mood has swung in the other direction:  what one banker called a shift from over-exuberance to uber-pessimism. But where is Africa today really? Obviously, it is impossible to talk about Africa as though it were a single unit. Some countries are doing much better than others. Many of the non-commodity exporters and oil importers have actually benefited from a positive terms of trade shock. Even the countries most affected from declining commodity prices and the China slowdown are not back to square one. Some have better educated people, more established middle classes and strategies to diversify their economies away from resource-based growth. Others are adopting policies to repair budget deficits and engineer a return to international capital markets. From the perspective of the continent as a whole, much will depend on how both Nigeria and South Africa navigate their current difficulties. A panel of experts from around the continent will attempt to sift through the hype and paint a more nuanced picture of where African economies find themselves today.

Chair: David Pilling, Africa Editor, Financial Times
Bob Collymore, CEO, Safaricom
Mo Ibrahim, Founder and Chair, Mo Ibrahim Foundation
Razia Khan, Chief Economist, Africa, Standard Chartered Bank
Tope Lawani, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Helios Investment Partners LLP
Yaw Nsarkoh, Managing Director, Unilever Nigeria PLC

10.40   View from the Top

Pravin Gordhan, Minister of Finance, National Treasury, Republic of South Africa in conversation with Lionel Barber, Editor,Financial Times

11.10    Break

11.40  Industrial Policy – Can Africa Make Things?

This panel will discuss Africa’s dearth of manufacturing and ask what can be done to address the shortfall. The success of most Asian economies was based on manufacturing, at least initially, and some development economists suggest that most African countries will struggle to progress unless they have a manufacturing strategy. Some countries, Ethiopia among them, have taken this message to heart. On the other hand, some experts say most African economies are too small and too insufficiently developed to compete in manufacturing and that their comparative advantage lies elsewhere. This panel will discuss experiences around the continent and seek to draw conclusions.

Chair: David Pilling, Africa Editor, Financial Times

Keynote: Okechukwu Enelamah, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Government of Nigeria

Panel:
Ha-Joon Chang, Reader, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge
Okechukwu Enelamah, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Government of Nigeria
Acha Leke, Director, Africa, McKinsey & Company
Carlos Lopes, Executive Secretary, UN Economic Commission for Africa
Arkebe Oqubay, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister, Government of Ethiopia

12.50  Lunch

14.00  Turning on the Lights

Rightly, there has been huge emphasis in recent years on providing Africa with power. Most countries have a chronic shortfall, with three-quarters of their population or more without electricity. Even where there is a functioning grid, power is often too expensive or too unreliable to be attractive to industry, obliging many businesses to come up with their own power solutions. In recent years there has been a more concerted effort to address this huge impediment to development, a process aided by technological advances that make off-grid and alternative-energy solutions viable in many circumstances.

Chair: William Wallis, Leader Writer and former Africa Editor, Financial Times
Jay Ireland, President and CEO, General Electric Africa
David Ladipo, Managing Director, Azura Power Holdings
Jesse Moore, CEO and Co-Founder, M-KOPA

14.45  Mobilising Domestic Finance

Foreign portfolio inflows into Africa have been subsiding over the past 18 months. At the same time banks on the continent are lending to fewer people and in smaller amounts. Equity markets are bearish and partially developed bond markets have been equally hit. Against this backdrop who is going to provide the capital to fuel growth? We assemble a star studded cast of continental financial experts to discuss how African countries can mobilize domestic savings for the next phase of development.

Chair: Andrew England, Middle East & Africa News Editor, Financial Times
Arnold Ekpe, Chairman, Atlas Mara Limited
Yvonne Ike, Managing Director, Sub-Saharan Africa, Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Tito Mboweni, Former Governor, South African Reserve Bank and International Advisor, Goldman Sachs
Aly-Khan Satchu, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Rich Management Limited

15.30  Break

15.50  CEO Panel

This year’s CEO panel will have a technology theme as the FT invites leaders from some of the most technologically innovative companies on the continent to discuss their experiences.

Chair: Lionel Barber, Editor, Financial Times
Herman Chinery-Hesse, Chairman, TheSOFTtribe Limited
Michael Macharia, Founder and Group CEO, SevenSeas Technologies Group
Strive Masiyiwa, Chairman and Founder, Econet Wireless
Jason Njoku, Founder & CEO, iROKO
Bright Simons, President, MPedigree

16.50  The Outlook for Africa

Professor Justin Lin, Director, Centre for New Structural Economics, Peking University, in conversation with Martin Wolf, CBE, Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times

17.30  Close of Summit

18.30  Summit Reception

19.30  FT Africa Summit Dinner

Host: Lionel Barber, Editor, Financial Times

Guest Speaker: Bob Collymore, CEO, Safaricom