Sitting at an event in Hong Kong this week, I declared that Africa’s time is now. This isn’t hyperbole. Chatham House writes that Africa will be the second-fastest-growing region globally this year. It adds: “The African Development Bank projects an annual economic growth rate of 4.3 per cent, up from 3.7 per cent last year”. The upward trajectory continues despite rocky geopolitical conditions, including the impact of climate change, war and economic wars.
Looking to the future, the possibilities become awe-inspiring. By the end of this century, Africa will be home to four billion people and Asia to five billion. This means that these continents will account for nine out of 11 billion people on Earth. This, coupled with innovation and action, will mean that the bilateral partnership between Asia and Africa will define our future, and not for decades but centuries.
A meeting of minds
I wrote before that the future of markets, innovation, and growth will not be written in Washington, Brussels, or London, but in Kigali, Nairobi, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Jakarta. What I have seen and heard in Hong Kong this week has absolutely confirmed this to me.
“The bilateral partnership between Asia and Africa will define our future.”
Our host and guest of honour represented the two continents. Raffles Family Office group CEO, Chi Man Kwan, and The Honourable Minister, Yusuf Murangwa, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning of Rwanda, opened the roundtable discussion. The event brought together CEOs and business leaders from Asia’s banking and wealth, real estate and hospitality sectors with some of Africa’s brightest entrepreneurial minds.
Our focus was the unlocking of Africa’s potential and we grounded high level concepts in reality with Rwanda as our case study. This is a country, which is recognised as a hub of economic growth and innovation in Africa. The World Bank reports that Rwanda’s real GDP grew by 8.9% in 2024, beating the previous year’s growth rate of 8.2%.
Small but Mighty Rwanda
Hortense Mudenge, CEO of the Kigali International Financial Centre, walked the group through Rwanda’s Vision 2050 – ‘the land of a thousand hills’ – highlighting the policies that have made Rwanda a high-interest geography for investors and the priorities of the plan.
Make no mistake, Rwanda is a small but mighty country – small in geographical and population size, but mighty in ambition – leading the ‘Africa Rising’ charge. As Minister Murangwa stated, Rwanda has one clear ambition: to become the facilitator in terms of access to the region, driven by credibility in partnership, and underpinned by uncompromising stability in governance and institutions. Many already view it as the rising ‘Singapore of Africa’ – and these claims certainly aren’t far-fetched.
The discussion explored multiple components, from investment incentives to exciting collaborations like being the first African country to host F1 grand prix, from technology to connectivity and being accelerator for economic development.
The key takeaways
For me, though, there were three fundamental takeaways. Firstly, the degree of exposure and awareness about the potential of Africa varied greatly. Some of the senior executives simply didn’t have an idea of the potential and future size of the market, while others had led operations on the continent and shared their experiences. It reminded me of one of the conclusions that came out of a similar roundtable at Concordia in NYC last month. There was consensus that Africa needed to take control of the Africa story narrative – people simply do not know what they don’t know, and we can’t continue to let narratives built on negative facts propagate.
“Africa needs to take control of the Africa story narrative.”
This is a mission Elevate Africa, is actively pushing – with one of their programmatic pillars being reshaping Africa’s self-image and global perception. But it’s a marathon not a sprint – as noted by Dennis Chiu, the Executive Director of Far East Consortium International Ltd, who committed, at the end of the dialogue, to visit Rwanda in the near future and learn more about the possibilities on the continent. That one commitment confirmed that dialogues do change narratives.
Secondly, one of the participants reminded us of the journey of China – which started at a lower base compared to Rwanda’s current GDP per capita – and is now the second largest economy in world (and by some metrics joint first with the US). Everything is a journey, but every journey also requires focus. You have to play the long game but with clarity. Rwanda has a huge opportunity to set the financial infrastructure for the rest of the continent.
Chi-Man Kwan: “Don’t just talk about the future – let’s create it together.”
Finally, while the opportunity for Africa remains massive, it requires the right partnerships. As I reminded the group, the bilateral continental relationship between Africa and Asia will be the most important and most defining for the next century.
History is being written and it starts with dialogues like those I was honoured to chair at this event. I look forward to participating in and shaping more dialogues like this, and progressing insights to actions. In the words of Chi-Man Kwan: “Don’t just talk about the future – let’s create it together.”
