Speaking in a press conference yesterday, the Chief Executive Officer of Africa CEO Forum, Amir Ben Yahmed said that they are excited to host the forum in Kigali.
He said that it is one of the most important business event in Africa and the most important event for private sector.
The event brings together CEOs from all over Africa, the investment community coming from international countries including, France, German, Japan, China and US as well as different partner institutions.
“We are thrilled to host this event in Kigali because one of the triggering reasons was the signing of the Continental Free Trade Area agreement that clearly indicates that the regional integration ID that has been debated for a long time is now taking shape. We are very happy that it was done in Kigali and for us, it is very good opportunity to bring Eastern Africa into the global conversation that we have managed to create over the last six years,” he explained.
Yahmed said that one of the main objectives of the forum is to finalize what they have achieved in the past years.
“What we have achieved so far, is to create this global conversation between CEOs from all Africa and increase the impact of Eastern African CEOs into this conversation,” he added.
The 7th edition according to Yahmed, wanted to be hosted in a country which could embody what the forum focuses on.
“The Africa CEO Forum has always been about modernizing African economies and showing the rest of business community on how Africa could compete on the global competition for business growth. With all the CEOs we have always been eying good governance, leadership, strategic business thinking, ease of doing business and I think Rwanda has incredible records in those areas,” he added.
The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) Chief Executive Officer, Clare Akamanzi said that through the forum, Rwanda expects to expose investment opportunities to business people who will attend the forum.
“We want to attract more investments in Rwanda, both from within and outside the country, and lot of the time we go outside where investors are and describe Rwanda to them,…. A lot of time we describe Rwanda to them and we want them to believe what we tell them. It becomes easier when they come in the country and see all those things for themselves,” she explained.
She said that as Rwanda will participate in the programmes of the event with private sector leaders participating on the panels, Rwanda will showcase investment opportunities to targeted investors.
“As we look at the list of participants who will come, we will do our homework as RDB, we will target those who will be strategic to transformation of our country, we will look at those personalities who will come in our country and who will respond to the needs we have for investment and we will engage them one on one,” she added.
The 7th edition of Africa CEO Forum is expected to attract over 1500 participants. The last edition was held in Abidjan, Ivory Coast and was attended by President Alassane Ouattara, Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo and Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
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