President Muhammadu Buhari will lead some members of his cabinet and top Nigerian business leaders to the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA’s) US-Africa 10th biennial business summit scheduled for February 1 - 4 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The summit will bring together more than 1,000 private sector and government representatives, including heads of state from all parts of Africa, the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
This year’s summit will feature sector-focused panels, country-specific forums, peer-to-peer roundtables, site visits, exhibitions and networking opportunities. It is billed to hold after the African Union’s annual heads of state summit in Addis Ababa.
CCA’s president, Stephen Hayes, said not only is this the first time the African Union and the Ethiopian government would co-host such an event with an American business association, but it is also the first time CCA would host its summit in Africa since 2007.
He said that Nigeria was a priority country for CCA members and the organisation has worked to promote US-Nigeria trade and investment for over a decade, recalling that in July 2015, the council hosted Buhari on his inaugural visit to the United States to discuss Nigeria’s economic growth and strategy.
He added that CCA’s vice president, Robert Perry led a 14-person delegation from the United States for a trade mission to Nigeria aligned with the Nigerian Economic Summit Group Summit in October 2015, featuring leading American businesses, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Gilead Sciences.
Confirmed speakers for the summit include Peter Amangbo, CEO of Zenith Bank, Oscar N. Onyema, Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Austin Avuru, CEO of Seplat Petroleum and Ndidi Nwuneli, co-founder, AACE Foods.
