PACHEDU, a global platform dedicated to advancing Africa’s growth through impactful business and investment, convened a high level gathering of African leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, global partners and international allies on the margins of the World Economic Forum in Davos, signalling a bolder and more coordinated African presence in the world’s most influential economic conversations.
The event, titled Connecting Continents: Unlocking Africa’s Growth Together, was hosted in partnership with the unDavos Summit and designed to move beyond the familiar language of potential and promise into something more practical and urgent: execution. For PACHEDU’s founders, Maphrida Wehrli and Dorris Kirui, the mission is not simply to place Africa in the room, but to ensure the continent’s priorities shape the agenda and that capital is directed towards ventures that create long term value, measurable impact and regenerative growth.
“Africa’s future will not be shaped by potential alone, but by how effectively capital, connection, and execution are aligned,” the founders said. “PACHEDU exists to ensure African perspectives are not only heard, but actively shaping global economic outcomes.”
It was a message that cut through the polished rhetoric that often clings to global summits. In a world where Africa is frequently discussed as an afterthought, a risk profile, or a charity case dressed up as development, PACHEDU’s gathering insisted on a different posture: Africa as an investment destination, a policy shaper, a commercial partner and, crucially, a co author of the global economic future.
The convening featured curated discussions and intimate exchanges centred on mobilising sustainable and responsible capital into African markets, strengthening collaboration between African entrepreneurs and global investors, elevating African leadership within economic and policy conversations, and translating insight into partnerships with measurable outcomes. It was, in essence, a deliberate attempt to replace symbolic inclusion with strategic alignment, and to convert the energy of Davos into decisions that outlive the week.
Speakers and moderators reflected the breadth of PACHEDU’s ambition, spanning enterprise, policy, finance, governance and innovation. They included Celeste Tchetgen Vogel of eWAKA Mobility, Christopher Mbanefo of OXI ZEN, Contimi Kenfack Mouafo of 3E’s 4 Africa, and H E Fouzia Abass, Kenya’s Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Others on the programme included Izzy Obeng MBE of Foundervine, Joe Kinvi of Borderless, Julien Gakpe of Minah, Kwame Bekoe of AfriSAF, Elizabeth Brenda Sekaggya of the Chamber of Commerce Swiss Uganda, and Pascal Gally of Choc des Légendes. The line up also featured Pauline Koelbl of ShEquity, Scarlet Wannenwetsch of the Basel Institute on Governance, Sidney Sampson of Sydani Group, Tallulah Bär of Afroswissters, and Tarig Ahmed of the African Union Commission’s African Inclusive Markets Excellence Centre.
Participants included senior business leaders, investors, policymakers, members of African diasporan communities and allies committed to inclusive growth and long term value creation. In the language of summits, these gatherings are often described as networking. In reality, what PACHEDU sought to cultivate was something more durable: trust, clarity and follow through.
At the heart of the conversations was a recurring theme that many speakers returned to with both frustration and resolve: Africa’s narrative is still too often shaped by those who profit from its misrepresentation. Conflict is amplified, crisis is commodified, and progress is treated as a footnote. Yet the conditions for a different story are already in motion. Panellists pointed to the African Union’s Agenda 2063, the African Continental Free Trade Area, and the pace of innovation across the continent as enabling forces for a new era of enterprise and investment.
They also challenged the assumptions that continue to distort global perceptions of risk. Several speakers argued that many of the barriers hindering progress are not always structural, but perceived. Africa is frequently priced as danger before it is assessed as opportunity, and by the time it is understood, the first movers have already built the future.
One of the most pointed discussions centred on value addition. Africa’s wealth in natural resources is well documented, yet the continent remains trapped in a pattern that undermines its prosperity: exporting raw materials, then importing them back as expensive finished goods. This cycle is not merely an economic inconvenience. It is a structural leak in the continent’s potential, a quiet haemorrhage of jobs, expertise and industrial capacity.
Another thread that drew sharp attention was the place of carbon markets and climate finance in Africa’s economic accounting. Panellists questioned why carbon markets contribute trillions of dollars in value globally, yet remain poorly captured in Africa’s GDP metrics, despite the continent’s vast ecological assets and its central role in the climate conversation. For a platform grounded in ESG and sustainability, this was not an abstract debate. It was a call to correct the imbalance between the value Africa provides to the world and the value it is allowed to retain.
There was also a moral urgency in the room, the kind that cannot be faked. One of the most resonant reflections, shared during the panel discussions, was simple and unsettling: “We are currently living in the present our ancestors generations before us created. So what are we doing for the future?” It reframed the Davos moment as more than a summit appearance. It became a question of legacy, responsibility and the kind of growth worth pursuing.
The convening did not treat impact as a fashionable add on. It was positioned as the central requirement for Africa’s next chapter. Speakers emphasised the need to invest for impact, to expand capital flows into climate smart ventures, and to back women led businesses not as charity, but as smart economics and a correction of long standing exclusion. If Africa is to build resilient prosperity, the argument went, it cannot rely on extractive models dressed up as development. It must prioritise regenerative growth, the kind that replenishes communities, strengthens systems and creates wealth without leaving ruin in its wake.
Diplomacy, too, played its part. Ambassador Fouzia Abass openly invited diasporans to return to build and invest back home, while highlighting what she described as an efficient integration process in Kenya. It was a moment that captured the bridge PACHEDU is trying to build: between those shaping Africa from within the continent and those positioned globally with networks, capital, expertise and influence.
That bridge is not only about Africans abroad. PACHEDU’s positioning is intentionally wider. It is about a global ecosystem that includes entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, businesses, diasporan communities, individuals on the continent, and allies who share a common mission to advance Africa’s growth through serious enterprise and impactful investment. The aim is not to build an exclusive club, but a working infrastructure for collaboration that is cross border, cross sector and execution driven.
The success of this first gathering in Davos marks an important milestone for PACHEDU’s long term vision: building a permanent, insight driven platform connecting Africa with global capital and decision makers. The team describes the Davos side event as the launch signal, not the destination. In 2026, one of the priorities will be developing a digital platform to enable strategic matchmaking and sustained collaboration beyond conference rooms and annual calendars.
If the global economy is shifting, then Africa cannot afford to be spoken about only in the language of need. It must be spoken about in the language of leverage, innovation and leadership. One of the closing insights from the discussions captured the mood with blunt elegance: partnership and collective action among those on the continent, with those in the diaspora and global allies are key to advancing growth in Africa.
And perhaps the most memorable line of the day arrived with the kind of humour that carries truth like a blade: Africa needs to be at the table and not on the menu.
PACHEDU’s Davos convening was, above all, an insistence on that seat. Not as a courtesy, not as a symbolic gesture, but as a strategic necessity for a world that claims to be building a shared future. The question now is not whether Africa belongs in global economic dialogue. The question is whether the world is ready to treat Africa as a partner in shaping outcomes, and whether those who believe in the continent’s future are willing to move from applause to action.
Because the era of waiting has expired. What comes next will be built by those prepared to connect, commit and execute.
