Building a Venture in Africa

The former Prime Minister will give special remarks on accelerating economic growth and sustainable development in Africa.

In the past decade, the African continent has experienced a remarkable surge in startup activity, as many enterprising individuals have set their sights on solving local challenges through innovative solutions. However, this momentum has been met with a challenging year, where several startups have been forced to either shut down or significantly downsize to weather the current storm. This panel will focus on how African startups can scale from 0 to 1 and from 1 to 100 and how they can access capital, talent, and mentorship to fuel sustainable growth.

The past few years has seen a renewed focus on African arts on the global stage: Afrobeats, Nollywood on global streaming platforms, African fashion being shown at various global fashion weeks and carried by global retailers. How can African brands leverage this momentum to build sustainable (economically and ethically) business models that enable their products to be accessible to local and global clientele and withstand the test of time? What are the opportunities to innovate across the value chain and what unique competitive advantages do we have on the continent? This panel will dive into these questions through the lens of various ecosystem stakeholders - designers, retailers, investors, manufacturers - at the forefront of innovating African fashion and bringing it to the global stage

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