President Paul Kagame has called on African leaders to move beyond analysing global crises and instead take coordinated action, saying the continent must respond more decisively to a rapidly shifting geopolitical and economic environment.
He said this at the opening of the 2026 Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, which brought together about 2,800 participants from more than 70 countries, including Heads of State, business leaders, and investors.
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Among the attending leaders were Presidents William Ruto of Kenya, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani of Mauritania, Daniel Chapo of Mozambique, Mamadi Doumbouya of Guinea, and Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema of Gabon.
“There will always be crises. We have had centuries of different things happening. We had slave trade, we had colonial times, then there are wars, then there are pandemics, then all kinds of things. They will happen all the time. So we are in a different crisis now that is driven geopolitically, and we have to contend with that,” Kagame said.
He added that Africa must move from discussion to implementation and collective responsibility, arguing that the continent already holds the resources needed to transform its global position.
“We need to learn from this. We need to shape what we are doing for ourselves, and action should lead us in the right direction and how to deal with these crises.”
“Why is Africa always at a disadvantage when you have almost everything? If you look at the area of green energy, and this continent is home to 60% of solar potential. Africa is home to that,” he said, also pointing to critical minerals and the continent’s growing human capital.
He urged stronger cooperation among African countries and a shift from rhetoric to implementation.
Jean-Guy Afrika, CEO of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), said this year’s theme, “the scale imperative: why Africa must embrace shared ownership,” reflects the urgency of building economic scale through cooperation rather than fragmentation.
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“Africa’s demographic opportunity is becoming impossible to ignore. A young and growing population, expanding cities, rising consumption, and a workforce that will shape the global economy in decades to come. The challenge is to convert this potential into scale,” he said.
Africa CEO Forum was founded by Jeune Afrique Media Group and is now permanently co-hosted by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group.
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Amir Ben Yahmed, CEO of Jeune Afrique Media Group, said global power is increasingly defined by scale, with major economies leveraging corporate strength and capital to maintain dominance. He warned that recurring global crises are reshaping Africa’s economic choices.
“So basically, shifting the scale used as dominance. And the second thing, which is very important, is that the world is in a constant stage of crisis… suddenly, we as Africans could not finance our coal and gas project,” he said.
Makhtar Diop, Managing Director at the International Finance Corporation, said sustainable development depends on stable economic systems, stressing that “there is no sustainable development without sound macroeconomic foundation.”