LSE Africa Summit to discuss ‘Future Frontiers’

The London School of Economics annual conference, Africa Summit, will this year focus on opportunities in the continent and challenges of managing the continent’s demographies.

LSE Africa Summit is an gathering of policymakers, researchers and business leaders from across Africa and the world.

This year’s edition of the summit, the sixth since inception, will hold from March 30 to 31 in London.

A joint-statement from the four Co-Directors of the 2019 summit, Oluwagbemileke Jegede, Muqaddam Malik, Sidney Trompell and Aba Wilson, said the 2019 theme “Africa’s Future Frontiers” seeks to address the socio-economic dilemma of the continent as it explores vast opportunities amidst a widening age gap between the aging and the youth.

They said the conference would “explore how Africa can navigate its crossroads to position itself for economic and social sustainability and inclusivity by tapping into Africa’s future frontiers.

“These frontiers include the prospects of reaching beyond its borders to bring about exponential growth, the revolutionising of banking to ensure financial inclusion, the establishment of the rule of law for a fairer and just Africa, the harnessing of technology for private sector development, and the embracing of a sustainability culture and African soft power for socio-cultural empowerment, among many others,” they added.

Last year the summit was on the theme “Africa at Work: Educated, Employed, Empowered”, focussing on the unemployment challenge, especially amongst the youth on the continent, with solutions proffered by diverse speakers, including President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of Ghana and Ibrahima Cheikh Diong, founder and CEO of the Pan African Dakar-based Advisory firm.

The organisers assured of “showcasing some of Africa’s brightest minds and connecting the continent’s most passionate advocates at what has become one of the leading student-run events here at the LSE.”

The 2019 summit will be delivered by a 24-person team, with Danièle Weulassagou as Head of Business Development; Khutso Tsikane, Head of Speakers Coordinators; Benedicta Asare, Head of Logistics; and Gimba Kakanda, Head of Media and Communications.

The LSE Africa Summit was founded in 2014 and has since then held on the campus of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and managed by its students.