The African continent is showing strong economic growth. But where is the ‘Made in Africa’ label? The sixth edition of NABC ‘s conference Africa Works! is about Africa’s green industrialization.
Africa Works! was first organized in 2012 by the Netherlands-African Business Council (NABC) and has since grown into the largest Africa-focused business conference in the Benelux, with between 250 and 400 participants per day in recent years. Africa Works! is therefore the place for the Netherlands and Africa to meet. Business delegations are expected from Angola, Nigeria, Egypt, Ghana, Angola and Sierra Leone, among others.
“Africa’s Green Industrialization (Made in Africa) is the theme we have chosen for this edition,” says Núria Vlonk-Cunha Soares, deputy Managing Director of NABC and project leader of Africa Works! “When Africa wants to take the next step in its development then more products must be manufactured locally.”
The main theme of Africa’s green industrialization includes three sub-themes: circular food production, renewable energy and sustainable agrologistics. The focus is on green solutions that aim to decouple economic growth from damage to the environment.
Africa Works! takes place on April 23 at the KIT (Royal Tropical Institute) in Amsterdam. During the conference we listen to inspiring keynote speeches and participants can attend workshops, an investor session (dragons den style) and country sessions (including opportunities in Angola, Ethiopia and Nigeria). In addition, there will be a roundtable discussion on financing Africa’s green industrialization.
During the opening session we will hear from a number of Keyonte speakers who are coming to Amsterdam for the conference. These include Kazeem Olanrewaju, CEO of the (Microcredit) bank Alert Group in Nigeria and Simon Davis, who set up a company that has developed electric trucks for the African market.
We also hear from Amany Asfour, president of the Africa Business Council, Lara van Druten, the CEO of Waste Transformers (who has made a system for converting waste into energy commercially deployable) and from the Dutchman Thijs Boer, who as a student went to Rwanda for research into potatoes and now runs a chips factory with 60 employees in the East African country.
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