Olusesan Oba
The United Kingdom has announced it would host the second UK-African Investment Summit on 23-24 April 2024 in London.
The UK government made this announcement in a press statement on its official website, https://www.gov.uk, on Friday.
It said Heads of State and Government from 24 African countries with British and African business leaders will participate in the Summit.
The statement read: “It will strengthen UK-African partnerships to create jobs and growth, supporting British and African talent in sectors such as finance and technology, and promote women entrepreneurs. It aims to promote 2-way trade and investment, creating jobs and growth and supporting women entrepreneurs
“The UK-African Investment Summit 2020 marked an important milestone in our partnerships with African countries and announced over £6.5 billion of deals, plus a further £8.9 billion of investment commitments.
“The virtual conferences in the following years built further connections between UK and African businesses, with more than 3,000 UK and African delegates looking at future opportunities to facilitate deals, with a focus on clean growth opportunities across the continent.
“By 2050, 2 billion people will live in Africa, more than half will be under 25.
“During the next 2 years, faster economic growth is expected across Sub-Saharan Africa than the global average. And as the world faces the stark and shared challenge of climate change, the UK is working with African countries to support them to mitigate and adapt to its effects, recognising Africa’s abundant potential for renewable energies of the future.”
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said to grow the UK’s economy, create opportunities for growth and bolster its economic security, they must deepen their ties with partners across the world.
He added that the summit will ensure, ” we are able to harness the potential of our relationships across Africa and grow our economies together, making them stronger, resilient, and innovative.
“By facilitating business-to-business links, trade opportunities and investment, UK-AIS will help harness this potential for the creation of mutual prosperity, economic growth, jobs and a global transition to green energy.
The UK government also said the country’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Secretary, James Cleverly, working closely with the Secretary of State for Business and Trade and President of the Board of Trade, Kemi Badenoch, to lead work across Whitehall to prepare for the Summit.
Badenoch who has a Nigerian heritage said: “I’m pleased that we are building on the success of the 2020 Summit as we continue to strengthen our excellent relationships with our African partners.
These partnerships have already helped grow our economies, and I look forward to coming together again to discuss our joint ambitions to increase trade and investment, enhance market access and create jobs.”
