On the 1st and 2nd of October 2020, about 200 to 300 of Africa’s most influential family business owners and leaders will be hosted at the first digital edition of the Africa CEO Forum Family Business Summit for African family businesses.
The Summit will enable family business owners and leaders come together to share and discuss ideas among themselves, experts and investors to build a long-term and sustainable brand of pan-African family capitalism.
According to the 2020 Africa CEO Survey, the pandemic has caused a global economic disruption which has impelled a vast majority of African family business leaders to have take up a pessimistic outlook. As a result, their hopes for a better economic state has dropped from 83 percent at the beginning of the years, to 25 percent today.
Given the uncertain times we find ourselves, there is need for African business leaders to express more agility, independence and innovation in order to turn the economic crisis into an opportunity for development.
To address these challenges, the Family Business Summit is centered on the theme “Preparing for the Future”. All through the six-hour event, participants will take advantage of the practical sessions aimed at instilling in them a culture of agility, independence and innovation, seizing investment opportunities and ability to thrive through the pandemic and prepare them for a new future
Several leading experts have confirmed their availability at the event. They include: Jennifer Pendergast, Executive Director of the Center for Family Enterprises at the Kellogg School of Management (United States); Elmarie Venter, Director of the Nelson Mandela University Family Business Unit (South Africa); Peter Vogel, Director of the IMD Global Family Business Center (Switzerland); and Alan Barr, Head of KPMG Private Enterprise for Africa (South Africa).
The Family Business Summit resonates with the AFRICA CEO FORUM’s mission to highlight the challenges African businesses face, provide concrete and innovative solutions, and amplify the private sector’s voice on Africa’s major development challenges. The Family Business Summit seeks to be the first stepping stone in creating a pan-African community whose members share the ambition of carving out a modern, forward-looking brand of African family capitalism.
About the AFRICA CEO FORUM
Founded in 2012, the AFRICA CEO FORUM is an annual gathering of decision-makers from the largest African companies, as well as international investors, multinational executives, heads of state, ministers, and representatives of the main financial institutions operating on the continent. As a platform for high-level business meetings and a place to share experiences and identify trends that affect the business world, the AFRICA CEO FORUM is committed to offering concrete and innovative solutions to help the continent and its companies move forward. Through its “Women Working for Change” and “Family Business” initiatives, it also aims to increase the representation of women in decision-making positions on the continent and to support the transformation of African family businesses.
