President Paul Kagame will on Tuesday, June 23 deliver opening remarks and engage in a fireside chat at the beginning of the four-day Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) Leaders Forum. This is the first time that the meeting, which will be held virtually, will be taking place since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Established in 1993, CCA promotes business and investment between the United States and African countries. It also serves as an intermediary connecting its member firms with essential government and business leaders they need to do business with and succeed in Africa. The CCA Leaders Forum, which will be live-streamed online, will run under the theme “Resilient U.S.-Africa business engagement to drive post-Covid-19 recovery”. It will attract Heads of State, senior US and African government officials, private sector executives, and leaders from multilateral institutions. Areas to be explored include the global financial response in Africa, economic and health innovations in response to Covid-19, drivers of growth during post-Covid-19, and sustaining regional and bilateral trade post the pandemic. Other African Heads of State expected to speak at the event include President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta; Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana and Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique. Like the rest of the world, Africa is expected to take a major economic hit from the Covid-19 outbreak. For instance, recent research by global auditing firm McKinsey & Company’s experts indicated that Africa’s economies could experience a loss of between $90 billion and $200 billion in 2020 because of this pandemic. At the global scale, the most affected sectors include travel industry and tourism among others.
