Momentum builds for first TGAIS in Africa

Originally established in London in October 2014 and now in its third successful year, the Global African Investment Summit (TGAIS) has its inaugural summit on the African continent next month in partnership with COMESA and the Government of Rwanda.

The event will also showcase the newly completed Kigali Conference Centre in Rwanda’s capital city and illustrate its capability as a high-level international MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions) venue.

Why attend?

TGAIS has rapidly developed into a market-leading investment platform for networking, discussion and debate for past, present and future global investors and public and private sector project owners in Africa.

The conference’s organizers have highlighted various reasons as to why people should go to this year’s event. Attendees will be able to:

• Identify concrete investment and business opportunities that arise from the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA);
• Gain access to African heads of state, government ministers and heads of investment promotion agencies;
• Network with qualified African and international investors in control of $128 billion of funds, looking specifically for opportunities in the region; 
• Debate and tackle business-critical African investment and trade issues; 
• Build and strengthen crucial business relationships, networks and partnerships.

Who will be there?

Confirmed delegates who will be at TGAIS-COMESA Rwanda include numerous heads of state and regional economic communities, ministers, investment promotion agency leaders, policymakers, and other senior government officials from Africa and beyond.

Attendees will also be able to network with executive-level private sector business leaders from around the world; financiers and investors; international organizations and multilateral agencies; leading global, regional and local media and publications; and a wide variety of professional service providers, such as consultants, legal advisors, risk consultants, and academics.

Why now?

Interest is high and rising in both domestic and international investment communities in gaining ground-floor access to opportunities in Africa’s nascent development beyond its ubiquitous mineral wealth. For example, annual growth rates recorded by COMESA countries over the past 15 years have regularly exceeded 5% across the region, inspiring optimism and confidence in the future of the continent.

Concerted pan-African political efforts to increase regional collaboration and trade are spurring huge opportunities in building infrastructure to better connect countries by road, sea and air.

Soaring demand for ICT has seen huge advances being made and the sector is often touted as the lynchpin to leveraging Africa’s full potential. The surge in the uptake of WiFi and WiMax technology, for example, has allowed the nation – particularly rural areas – to leapfrog the economic and industrial development stages that other societies have had to first implement.

And of course the continent’s ambitious development plans all rely on sufficient access to financing and energy. As such, all these and other topics will be high on the list for discussion and negotiation at the upcoming TGAIS-COMESA Rwanda.

For more information about the summit, visit the TGAIS website.