The Uganda Development Finance Summit started with an elaborate opening ceremony attended by President Yoweri Museveni accompanied by wife, First Lady Mama Janet and senior members of his administration. The event, convened by the Uganda Development Bank (UDB), drew stakeholders from across the continent and beyond to examine pathways for Africa’s economic transformation, on 1 and 2 September at the Speke Convention Center in Kampala.
In his address President Museveni commended UDB for convening the summit, noting that the institution had emerged from the need for Uganda to take charge of its own socio-economic transformation. “What is yours is more in your control. That is why I wanted UDB,” he explained.
He urged African leaders to deepen economic and political integration as the fragmentation of African markets undermined the continent’s competitiveness and appeal to investors. “We must struggle for the integration of the African market as a matter of life and death,” he said.
He also pointed out that “the managers of Africa’s economies must have vision and integrity in order to make an impact.”
Patricia Ojangole, the managing director of UDB, attributed the institution’s growth to sustained government support. “When we move around, our colleagues and partners always ask how and why we are capitalised. We tell them our government supports the bank and provides the required environment for the bank to work efficiently, and the government demands that the bank is run professionally,” she said.
Industrial policy and strategic statecraft
The opening ceremony also featured a fireside chat with Arkebe Oqubay, the former mayor of Addis Ababa and a senior advisor to Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s prime minister. He discussed industrial policy and the role of strategic statecraft in economic development.
The afternoon segment of the programme featured two parallel panels. One explored pathways to commercialise African agriculture through targeted financing and the adoption of innovative technologies. The other tackled youth unemployment, spotlighting digital solutions.
In his keynote address, Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University drew parallels between Africa’s potential and China’s economic trajectory. “What China accomplished in the last 45 years, since it opened up to the world, is a roadmap for what Africa should accomplish in the next 40 years,” he said.
Sachs urged African nations to recalibrate their global engagement strategies in light of waning donor support from traditional Western partners. “Africa needs a strategy that does not depend on the US and Europe. It should be anchored in capital flows and private financing. In my experience, China, India and other countries will be far more forthcoming with partnerships,” he noted.
Promising trends in intra-African trade.
Opening the final day’s proceedings, David Luke of the London School of Economics gave a keynote address on the strategic role of trade in driving economic growth, job creation and structural transformation. While acknowledging the turbulence caused by shifting global trade policies – particularly those emanating from the United States – Luke pointed to promising trends in intra-African trade.
“We are in turbulent times as far as trade and trade policy are concerned, but for Africa, there are some bright spots. Afreximbank reports a 12.4% intra-African trade increase over 2023-24, to reach $220.3bn, not including informal trade,” he pointed out.
He also highlighted the continent’s expanding middle class as a catalyst for regional trade, domestic production and youth employment.
A panel explored the implications of de-globalisation and economic nationalism for Africa’s trade flows. Speakers emphasised the need to strengthen intra-continental frameworks and strategically reposition African economies within global value chains
Kudakwashe Matereke, Afreximbank’s director of regional operations for East Africa, focused on the bank’s efforts to stimulate export-led growth through the Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA).
“We have increased support for FEDA so that it can support manufacturing of high-value goods through industrial parks operating in Benin, Togo and Gabon. We are now in negotiations with Kenya so that ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms can find space, so that we can ramp up ‘made in Africa’,” he remarked.
In another keynote address after the panel, Justine Lumumba Kasule, minister for the office of the prime minister, commended UDB for its longstanding support for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), youth innovators and women entrepreneurs.
“They don’t stop at funding them, but they train them and help them get the required paperwork. If they do not have title deeds, they help them process the title to gain ownership so that tomorrow they can use that as security for a better loan,” she said.
Two parallel afternoon sessions turned the spotlight on blended finance, impact investing and digital transformation.
Competence in innovative finance
Frank Aswani, CEO of the African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA), highlighted the urgent need to train more African professionals in impact investing and blended finance. “Africa is the largest impact opportunity in the world, but we lack competence in innovative finance. We have only one institution – the University of Cape Town – offering this. If we want to advance in this field, we need more universities teaching impact investing and innovative finance,” he noted.
Monica Musenero, Uganda’s minister of science, technology and innovation, called for the creation of innovation banks in Africa to support the development of home-grown technologies.
Arshad Rab, CEO of the European Organisation for Sustainable Development (EOSD) and chairman of the International Sustainability Council, said: “Data centres are the physical backbone of all the rest of the digital infrastructure. If you do not have that physical backbone, you are always dependent on someone else. No matter how much you invest in your AI and technology, nothing will work if someone somewhere decides to switch it off,” he said.
Performance and impact
During The final panel Patricia Ojangole, managing director of UDB, said that the key focus for the institution is to strike a balance between performance and socio-economic impact.
“The conditions for approval for any investment that we make include the number of jobs that will be created. What we try to do is balance financial sustainability with socio-economic impact and we have to demonstrate this to our shareholders,” she said.
Closing the summit, Bank of Uganda governor Michael Atingi-Ego distilled the two-day deliberations: “We have had clear demands to lower punitive interest rates, deepen regional integration and advance export-led industrial policies. Let us not leave these ideas behind in this room. We must advocate for a global financial system that reflects Africa’s realities and potential. That means reforming the credit ratings system. This is about building an African architecture of transformation and it demands unity and working together.”