By TZBN Correspondent.
Botswana hosts the 15th U.S.-Africa Business Summit in the capital Gaborone this July of 2023, but only 6 African heads of states had confirmed attendance two days before the event.
On July 9, 2023, the only heads of State who had confirm attending the Botswana ‘US-African Business Summit’ planned for July 11-14 were Presidents from Eswatini, the Kingdom of Lesotho, Niger, Zambia, Mozambique and the host country, Botswana.
The four-day meeting will he held at Royal Aria Convention Centre on Jamali Road Tlokweng, in the capital Gaborone.
The gathering is a follow-up on some of business pledges taken at the mid-December 2022 US-African Leaders Summit in Washington DC, where U.S. President Joe Biden allocated $55 billion for various investment projects across Africa.
Holding the U.S.-Africa leaders’ summit and business forum last December in Washington was an important step in signaling simultaneously Africa’s importance and advancing the U.S.-Africa relationship, officials said. Through this follow-up ‘summit’ in Gaborone, organizers hope to strengthen further United States economic cooperation with Africa.
Florizelle Liser, CEO of the Corporate Council on Africa, a leading American business association, was upbeat on several initiatives for the continent she referred to as ‘future business partner’ and confirmed the summit will host a high-level U.S. government delegation including senior officials from key agencies responsible for supporting and promoting the U.S.-Africa economic relationships.
Botswana has been a great partner over the years and has been a leader in both political and economic governance, says Florizelle Liser. The United States government and private sector leaders, together with African political and corporate business leaders, have been working consistently over these years to share insights on critical issues and policies influencing the U.S.-Africa economic partnership, she said.
Liser characterized the summit as a platform to highlight the progress made across sectors of Africa’s economy, including expanding opportunities in agriculture, industry and manufacturing, technology, health, agribusiness, tourism and financial services.
Most U.S. enterprises are banking to explore the single continental market, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). As a corporate project initiated by the African Union (AU), it has the potential to unite more than 1.3 billion people in a $2.5 trillion economic bloc. It has the potential to generate a range of benefits through supporting trade creation, structural transformation, productive employment and poverty reduction.
The AfCFTA opens up more opportunities for both local African and foreign investors from around the world. Beyond that, there is always scope for the U.S. government to sharpen the tools it uses to promote trade and investment, reducing the time it takes to approve investment and export finance programs, while working with companies to adapt approaches to support evolving opportunities like infrastructure finance. Most importantly, however, U.S. and African companies need more opportunities to connect.
