East Africa: Kenya to Host Biennial Business Summit

By Zachary Ochieng

NAIROBI---This year’s East Africa Business Summit will be held from 17th to 20th November under the theme Innovation: A catalyst for accelerated growth in East Africa. The summit—to be held in Nairobi---has attracted over 100 CEOs from the region’s top companies.

Josephat Mwaura, CEO, KPMG East Africa and chairman of the conveners’ committee told a media briefing in Nairobi that CEOs from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi have confirmed attendance. The event will give them an opportunity to grow their businesses and tap into emerging opportunities in the region.

“This year, the summit will explore ways to navigate the numerous emerging opportunities in Africa. In particular, we are hoping to understand how CEOs’ decisions about strategies and operating models shape changes in the business landscape”, said Mwaura.

He added that the conveners will soon name the key speakers and presenters who have vast experience in their chosen fields of expertise to spearhead deliberations at the forum, held every two years in different East African countries.

“We will bring together a critical mass of the best business minds in our region. The idea is to engage key public and private opinion shapers from across the continent with a view to accelerating the economic transformation of East Africa”, stated Mwaura.

Currently in its 9th year, the biennial East Africa Business Summit is a forum that brings together the captains of industry in the region to exchange thoughts and ideas about major issues facing them and how they can be part of a solution to those issues. Besides KPMG East Africa, other co-conveners are Nation Media Group, Citi Group, Deloite &Touche, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and TPS Eastern Africa Limited (Serena Hotels).

Among the topics to be discussed at the upcoming summit are public private partnerships, private sector engagement in public policy formulation, making talent a strategic priority, science, engineering, technology and development and building great East African brands.

It is noteworthy that previous summits have come up with workable plans on enhancing telecommunication, value addition in agriculture, partnership with other states through infrastructure concessions and setting up of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) stations. Notably, the fibre optic cables that have changed the way business is conducted in the region are a brain child of the summit.