President Paul Kagame of Rwanda is among six African heads of state — including leaders from Senegal, Ghana, South Africa, Mauritania, and host country Côte d’Ivoire — participating in the two-day Africa CEO Forum 2025, which began this Monday in Abidjan.
The Africa CEO Forum 2025, organized in partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, brings together over 1,800 private sector leaders and international investors from May 12 to 13 in Abidjan.
This annual gathering of top executives from across Africa’s private sector unites over 2,000 business leaders, economists, investors, and decision-makers from Africa and around the globe to highlight the private sector’s role in driving the continent’s development.
Recent economic shocks and shifting global aid priorities have raised concerns about the continent’s ability to finance its own development. This underscores the private sector’s potential to serve as a real engine of transformation, according to the IFC.
Africa’s future economic self-reliance will depend on food security, financial innovation, accelerating digital technology, and advancing industrialization — areas where the private sector holds the key.
In Abidjan, the Africa CEO Forum 2025 is hosting two days of high-level discussions, policy debates, networking sessions, and workshops. The theme is: “New Deals Between Governments and the Private Sector: How Can Africa Succeed in the New Global Economy?”
The forum aims to strengthen public-private collaboration to promote sustainable development across the continent.
