Global Africa Forum 2025 Charts Bold Path for an ‘Africa Beyond Aid’ Amid Global Tariff Wars

The Global Africa Forum 2025 (GAF), convened on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, issued a powerful call for Africa to decisively seize control of its economic destiny. In response to global tariff wars, shifting geopolitics, and donor fatigue, leaders united around a vision of a self-reliant, integrated, and prosperous continent.

Organised by the Africa Prosperity Network (APN) in partnership with the Africa America Institute, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, KRL International, and the Rebranding Africa Forum, the event gathered African and Global African leaders, alongside global investors, innovators, and policymakers. The forum was held under the theme: “Africa’s Response to Tariff Wars: Building a Prosperous, Integrated Continent Beyond Aid.”

A Unified Continent as a Global Growth Frontier

Positioned as an active platform for mobilising Africans and Global Africans to shape their future in praticable terms, GAF 2025 emphasised that Africa’s strength lies in its unity and its capacity to mobilise its vast domestic and diaspora resources. Leveraging the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as a catalyst for economic growth, repositioning Africa and Global Africa or Africa’s Diaspora (designated by the African Union as Africa’s sixth region) as a unified market and a primary architect of its own prosperity defeats the narrative of an aid-dependent region. With a population of 1.5 billion, AfCFTA is the world’s largest single market project. Global Africa counts well over 200 million people.

“At its core, GAF recognises that Africa’s accelerated path to prosperity lies in economic integration,” stated Nana Adjoa Hackman, Executive Director of APN. She said the platform is designed to “deliberately connect resourceful Global Africans, entrepreneurs, professionals, investors, innovators, and institutions in the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, and elsewhere, to Africa’s integration and transformation agenda.”

This sentiment was also echoed by Mohamed M. Abou El Enein, Chairman and Founder of Cleopatra Group. “Africa is in my blood, Africa is in my brain, and I’m really proud of what’s happening now in the international market about the big awareness from all the most developed [economies] about Africa. It’s very important for investors to see that this continent is connected together.”

Mobilising Capital and Closing the Infrastructure Gap

A key financing innovation that was unveiled at GAF 2025 was the ‘Dollar-a-Day Initiative’, proposed by Her Excellency Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, APN Advisory Council Chairperson, during the 2025 Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD). The initiative aims to mobilise small, consistent contributions from Africans and Global Africans into a dedicated continental infrastructure fund, directly addressing Africa’s $100 billion annual infrastructure deficit through collective action.

GAF also scrutinised the strategic use of existing financial flows. Amine Iddriss Adoum, Director of Infrastructure, Industrialisation, Trade & Economy at AUDA-NEPAD, said: “We all keep saying that there are about $90 billion of remittances that come into Africa every year. But the interesting part of this number is that about 80% to 90% of the remittances don’t go towards productive investments.”

Trade, Partnerships, and Implementing the AfCFTA

High-level sessions interrogated Africa’s place in the global economy, calling for unified negotiation strategies, stronger regional value chains, and accelerated implementation of the AfCFTA. Discussions highlighted the urgent need for more balanced, trade-driven partnerships, particularly between the United States and Africa.

Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, United States Representative and Chairwoman for the Global Energy Conference, emphasised the need for a transformative engagement: “AGOA [Africa Growth and Opportunities Act] was a mutually beneficial trade policy that needed to be extended. So many people who looked at it said, ‘well Africa is the future’. We keep telling them that no, Africa is today, and it is now. We’re looking at finding different ways to participate more in Africa, specifically when it’s not just extraction, but we’re looking at processing, we’re looking at jobs, we’re looking at maximising the growth of Africa.” AGOA grants eligible African countries tariff-free entry into the United States for over 1,800 products.

Addressing Structural Barriers

While the vision was clear, participants acknowledged the practical challenges to realising a single African market. Dr Amany Asfour, President of the Africa Business Council, highlighted key obstacles: “If we talk about AfCFTA, it’s just an agreement. But to implement this agreement, we need a multifaceted approach. We need to have harmonisation of all the regulations and policies across the continent. You cannot just trade [with one set of regulations in] one country and another [set of] regulations or certificates in another country.”

Vymala Thuron, Director of Funds and Resource Mobilisation at Shelter Afrique Development Bank, pointed to financial infrastructure challenges: “At ShafDB, what we see is [real estate] as really an anchor to unlock trade, manufacturing, and energy. However, cross-border trade has high transaction costs and banking costs. There is the volatility. We need to reduce the cost of capital and we need to have other ways of de-risking investment.”

Governance and the Diaspora as Key Drivers

Joyce Bawah Mogtari, Special Aide to the President of Ghana, underscored the importance of governance: “If we want to make progress we need a fair justice system and we need equity. Ghana is open for business. But yes, [while] we are open for business […] we want the right kind of business.”

The Forum was notably encouraged by the significant number of registered attendees from the African diaspora, including African Americans and Afro-Caribbeans, who answered the call to reconnect with the continent. The event urged a decisive shift from charity and remittances towards strategic investment, innovation, and policy influence, positioning Global Africans as central drivers of connectivity, trade, and industrialisation.

Looking Ahead: Africa Prosperity Dialogues 2026

The event culminated with the launch of the Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD) 2026, announced by a coalition of leaders including Nana Adjoa Hackman of APN, Joyce Bawa Mogtari, Special Aide to the President of Ghana, Dr Amany Asfour of the Africa Business Council, and Nkiru Balonwu, APN Board Member and Founder of Africa Soft Power.

The dialogues will take place from 4–6 February 2026 at the Accra International Conference Centre, Ghana, under the theme: “Empowering SMEs, Women & Youth in Africa’s Single Market: Innovate. Collaborate. Trade.”

The outcomes of the Global Africa Forum will feed directly into APD 2026, where the ideas and proposals raised will be refined into concrete policies, investment commitments, and measurable outcomes for the continent.