Africa has used the United Nations General Assembly’s Unstoppable Africa 2026 gathering in New York to call for a stronger role in global trade, investment, governance and value creation.
Business leaders, heads of state, investors, policymakers and international partners attended the fifth edition of the Global Africa Business Initiative’s flagship event to discuss ways of strengthening Africa’s influence in the world economy.
The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, called for reforms that would give Africa a more substantial voice in international affairs, including a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.
“Africa needs a permanent presence on the United Nations Security Council, where it can contribute to dialogue and action for the whole globe,” Guterres said.
He noted that Africa’s growing importance in global markets should be matched by stronger representation in international decision-making.
Guterres also called for reforms that would better reflect the needs of developing countries, particularly African nations. He urged governments and businesses to ensure that the continent’s natural resources, including critical minerals, generated local value, quality employment and industrial development rather than being exported largely in raw form.
The event highlighted a changing economic narrative for Africa. Rather than serving primarily as a supplier of raw materials, the continent is seeking to develop more businesses, industries and regional value chains capable of retaining a greater share of the wealth generated from its resources.
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, said Africa’s population of approximately 1.5 billion people and expanding consumer market represented a major opportunity.
He said the continent needed to accelerate the development of African value chains and remove barriers to intra-African trade in order to achieve industrial transformation.
Youssouf identified affordable energy, reliable infrastructure, access to finance, skills, technology and clear regulatory standards as essential requirements for converting Africa’s market potential into faster economic growth.
The private sector played a central role in the discussions, with business leaders focusing on how Africa could turn its natural resources, markets and human capital into productive economic capacity.
Participants included the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Africa Finance Corporation, Samaila Zubairu; Dangote Group Chairman, Aliko Dangote; Standard Chartered’s Chief Executive Officer for the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Mandy DeFilippo; Standard Bank Group Chairperson, Nonkululeko Nyembezi; Anglo American South Africa Chairperson, Nolitha Fakude; and Allied Critical Minerals Fund General Partner, Tidjane Thiam.
Business leaders stressed the need to move beyond exporting raw materials such as crude oil and critical minerals. They called for more investment in local processing, manufacturing and other value-adding activities that would create jobs and retain greater economic value within Africa.
A major development announced at the gathering was the first close of the $300 million Nigeria Distributed Renewable Energy Fund.
The fund, co-managed by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority and Africa50, will provide equity financing to Nigerian clean-energy developers.
It will support decentralised energy solutions, including solar mini-grids, solar-home systems, commercial and industrial power projects and energy-storage facilities.
The fund is aligned with Mission 300, an initiative aimed at connecting 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030. It is designed to attract private investment and expand reliable electricity access for homes and businesses in Nigeria.
Energy was also a major focus of the event. World Bank Group Managing Director of Operations Anna Bjerde and the Chief Executive Officer and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All, Damilola Ogunbiyi, participated in discussions on using innovative finance to support Africa’s power infrastructure.
They considered ways of accelerating investment in electricity generation, transmission, distribution and decentralised energy systems across the continent.
Healthcare was also included in the broader economic-development discussions. Roche reaffirmed its commitment to improving breast-cancer care through its Africa Breast Cancer Ambition initiative.
The programme aims to help at least 80 per cent of women diagnosed with breast cancer in Africa survive for five years or longer by 2030.