Along the sidelines of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, global leaders and dealmakers gather to celebrate Africa’s present and claim its future.
Global leaders in finance, government, and civil society gathered in New York City for two days this week for Unstoppable Africa, an event that promotes investment, business development, and prosperity across the continent.
“We come together inspired by a simple truth: that Africa’s future must be shaped by Africans, for Africans,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres, speaking on September 20 at the Marriott Marquis.
“The world is finally recognizing [Africa] as a gamechanger for global business,” he added. “The shift you long envisioned is taking place: from doing business in Africa, to doing business with Africa,” despite global turbulence created by competition over critical minerals and conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Unstoppable Africa, held annually since 2022 alongside the UN General Assembly high-level week, is the flagship event of the Global Africa Business Initiative (GABI), a collaborative effort between the African Union (AU) and the UN, rooted in the principles outlined in the UN’s Global Compact. This year, Unstoppable Africa drew roughly 3,000 registrations according to its organizers. The two-day event, on September 20 and 21, featured high-level panel discussions on a wide range of topics, including energy sovereignty, intra-African trade, and protecting Africa’s talent pipeline, along with plenty of formal and informal networking and pitching opportunities for attendees.
Sunday’s opening session focused heavily on investment and development across Africa related to trade, energy production, and minerals—one of Africa’s most valuable resources estimated to be worth trillions of dollars and critical for today’s technology—that Guterres, who has consistently advocated for the continent throughout his tenure, said must “create local value and decent jobs, rather than simply being shipped overseas.” He added that the “plundering” of Africa must end, a theme that repeated throughout the gathering and was echoed by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, one of the event’s favored guests and director general of the World Trade Organization. She is the first woman and African woman to hold the position.
When asked whether potential investors from the private and public sectors were genuinely interested in forging long-term trading relationships with Africa or only wanted access to the continent’s minerals, Okonjo-Iweala gave a response that made the room erupt with applause. “Yeah … I think they want our critical minerals, but what do we [Africans] want?”
One highlight of the gathering was when the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), Africa50, and Sustainable Energy for All announced the commercial launch of the Nigeria Distributed Renewable Energy fund (DRE) worth $300 million. The fund supports Nigeria’s “ambitions to expand reliable, affordable and sustainable energy access,” according to a press release.
Another notable moment occurred during a fireside chat between the Kenyan Ambassador Martin Kimani, the newly appointed assistant secretary-general for Africa, and Massad Boulos, senior advisor to the US president on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs. The audience let out a disapproving groan when Boulos, in response to a question from Kimani on the imperative of creating peace and stability in Africa to incentivize business and investment, referred to President Trump as a “peacemaker” and a “president of peace.”
In recent UN news, the General Assembly adopted a resolution promoting map illustrations that accurately reflect the true size of Africa. One hundred and sixty-four member states voted in favor of the resolution; the US cast the lone no vote. Additionally, according to a new report, “the US withdrawal from key aid programs has put healthcare in Africa and the Global South under growing strain.”
Meanwhile, Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados, and Amina Mohammed, the deputy secretary-general of the UN, who has been at the heart of Guterres’s work in Africa during his tenure, closed out the final session of the gathering on September 21.
When asked what Africa needs to do to earn deeper trust for investment, Mottley, true to her tell-it-like-it-is style, replied, “Just do it,” and advised the audience to “emancipate” themselves from the “indoctrinated” reflex to “look north before we look east or west” for solutions. “We have to be able to believe in one another,” she added.
In her closing remarks, Mohammed ended on an inspiring note. She said, “If every one of us would seed our wealth in Africa, use your superpower, whether it is your voice for advocacy, or it is your money, whatever it is you have something to offer, seed that wealth in Africa.”
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