Executive Chair of the African Trade Chamber, Benedicta Lasi, has called for a decisive shift from policy intentions to execution as Africa pursues industrialisation, describing the continent’s current moment as critical to shaping its long-term economic future.
Welcoming participants to Accra for the Africa Trade Summit 2026, she said the gathering brings together leaders from government, finance, industry, and regional institutions at a time when Africa’s industrial ambitions must translate into concrete outcomes. She noted that the summit is convened under the theme “Financing Africa’s Industrialisation: Developing Industrial Value Chains, Beneficiation, and Market Integration.”
“Our industrialisation agenda has reached a critical point. The challenge before us is no longer one of intent, vision, or policy articulation. It is a question of execution: how we mobilise long-term capital, how we build integrated value chains, how we convert extraction into production, and how we organise our markets to support scale, competitiveness, and resilience.”
Benedicta Lasi emphasised that the Africa Trade Summit is designed as a working platform rather than a ceremonial event, with discussions focused on addressing the structural constraints that continue to limit Africa’s industrial transformation. She pointed to fragmented markets, weak production linkages, limited project preparation capacity, and the persistent gap between policy ambition and bankable investment as major obstacles.
“The Africa Trade Summit is designed as a working platform rather than a ceremonial gathering.
Over the course of the Summit, discussions will centre on the structural constraints that continue to limit Africa’s industrial transformation, fragmented markets, weak production linkages, limited project preparation capacity, and the persistent gap between policy ambition and bankable investment.”
She explained that through ministerial dialogues, sectoral roundtables, and private sector–led engagements, the summit aims to align policy, finance, and enterprise around implementable outcomes, particularly within the framework of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
A key highlight of the summit, according to Benedicta Lasi, is the activation of Industry Councils as practical tools for sustained collaboration across sectors and borders. She said the councils are intended to move beyond dialogue and serve as mechanisms for developing investable projects, resolving regulatory and financing bottlenecks, and nurturing competitive African industrial champions.
“These Councils are intended to move beyond dialogue, serving instead as platforms through which stakeholders can co-develop pipelines of investable projects, address regulatory and financing bottlenecks, and support the emergence of competitive African industrial champions.”
She added that the African Trade Chamber convenes the summit with the aim of providing a credible and trusted platform for private sector engagement with governments, financiers, and development partners, stressing that Africa’s transformation will be driven by partnerships rooted in execution and accountability.
“We believe that Africa’s transformation will be driven not by declarations, but by partnerships that are anchored in execution, accountability, and long-term commitment.”
Benedicta Lasi encouraged participants to engage actively in the summit’s discussions and to use the platform to build collaborations that extend beyond the event, noting that the quality of Africa’s industrial future will depend on decisions taken and relationships formed through such engagements.
By Bawa Musah
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