09 Jul 2023

US-Africa Business Summit officially kicks off tomorrow at the Royal Aria resort in Tlokweng.

The premier event, which  ends Thursday, is organised by Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) in partnership with government of Botswana and seeks to bolster investment opportunities between the US and the African continent.

This year’s summit held under the theme: Enhancing Africa’s Value in Global Value Chains, will explore, among others, how African enterprises can benefit from expanding and diversifying their participation in international trade and global value chains.

It will be graced by head of states from across the African continent who will participate in select plenaries and engagements alongside more than 1 000 US and African public and private sector participants, African ministers and senior government officials, entrepreneurs, international investors, and multilateral stakeholders.

In the past, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi expressed desire for the country to host international events, hence the summit. To this, Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Mmusi Kgafela said in an interview that hosting the US-Africa Business Summit fulfilled that wish as it created the much needed awareness for the country to brand itself as one of the leading destinations in Africa in terms of Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE).

He said the summit would promote the country’s image and create awareness of its value propositions on investment opportunities and incentives, thereby adding value to the overall prospect of the economy.

“The meeting is a golden opportunity for the country to profile itself as one of the most ideal investment destinations in Africa. It presents an opportunity for us as a country to create awareness of our culture, heritage, tourism, investment and trade to all the international visitors and potential investors,” he said.

Although it is a first that the country is hosting the summit, it had the privilege of attending and participating in the 12th US-Africa Business Summit in Mozambique in 2019 and the 14th edition in Marrakesh, Morocco last year, where interest to host the next edition was indicated.

The Morocco summit was followed by the US-led Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington in December of the same year, where Botswana was confirmed as a host for this 15th edition.

Minister Kgafela said such entities as Special Economic Zone Authority and Botswana Tourism Organisation were made part of the summit with the aim to target investors.

To capitalise on long term benefits, he said key organisation such as the Botswana Investment and Trade Centre would ensure that potential investors were followed up and facilitated through the Botswana One Stop Service Centre, should they express interest in setting here.

Botswana will also have the opportunity to engage with other African countries to explore collaborative opportunities on how to best boost intra-trade, he said.

The summit will also boost President Masisi’s Reset Agenda, which focuses on, among others, improving the country’s physical infrastructure, communications network and transitioning from a middle to a high income country by 2036.

“Through these engagements Batswana can network, benchmark, promote their products and services, access possible funding from funding agencies and possibly export their products, services and expertise to other African countries and the US.

Bringing the world to Botswana is a way of driving focus to the country, bringing in the much-needed foreign investment and improving Batswana’s standard of living,” he said.

The summit features over 35 sessions on key US-Africa trade collaborations in sectors such as energy, agribusiness, digital transformation and manufacturing ecosystems.

The discussions around these sectors will highlight, among others, strategies that promote industrialisation as well as harness the use of technology to enhance Africa’s value.

He said through side seminars, local companies would be given a platform to discuss tested solutions to today’s business challenges in strategic sectors such as agribusiness, finance, energy, health, infrastructure, ICT, mining, and security.

Tasked with overseeing the overall preparation of the summit, Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) chief operations officer, Mr Anthony Sefako said they were confident of hosting a successful event.

“Most of our accommodation facilities around the city are aware of the event and its magnitude. Air Botswana has committed its support with increased flight frequency from Johannesburg and Gaborone at very competitive rates,” he said.

Mr Sefako said it was vital that Botswana hosted the event since investment was a global competition and the event would essentially help position the county in the global map.

“Botswana and the United States have been good friends for years and work together in areas of health, culture, trade, democracy and tourism, among others, and so this summit is also a way of nurturing the good working relations between the two countries.

This summit will not only benefit Botswana, but Africa as a continent,” he said.

Mr Sefako said even though they do not yet have anything tangible concerning benefits from past summits the country participated in, they have promising leads and are currently working on assisting companies that have shown interest in investing in Botswana to settle in.

He encouraged joint business ventures with participating foreign companies as most of them had international exposure and experience that could benefit local ones.

He said during the summit, they would also help set up local companies with foreign ones that shared similar business interests through Business-to-Business side meetings.

“This will take place during the Business Forum Agenda themed: Investment Opportunities in Botswana, which is organised by BITC within the summit programme,” he said. ENDS