The AfCFTA was never meant to be a government‑only project; it’s the operating system for the people who create the jobs: African businesses. Yet in the evolution of the world’s largest free trade area, firms are not yet the architects helping shape the rules, tools, and deals that can tilt global terms of trade in Africa's favour on everything from critical minerals to green industrial exports.

This high‑energy working session asks a blunt question: what does it practically look like for the private sector to own and drive the AfCFTA? CEOs will bring real “pain points” from the field—rules of origin, NTBs, standards, customs, tax harmonisation, trade finance—and map them to the specific AfCFTA instruments and national policies that must change fast for the private sector to be able to take the wheel. Here policy makers engage with the private sector to move business from the consultation room into the design studio: standing seats on national AfCFTA committees, sector working groups co‑chaired by business, national AfCFTA business compacts, and hard feedback loops powered by NTB platforms, business indices and dispute‑resolution mechanisms that actually work.

Panelists:

• Ms. Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa, South Africa CEO and Executive Director, Naspers & Co-chair, UNGC Africa Business Leaders Coalition (South Africa)
• H.E. Francisca Tatchouop Belobe, Commissioner for Economic Development, Trade, Tourism, Industry and Minerals (ETTIM), African Union Commission (AUC)
• Ms. Marie-Laure Akin-Olugbade, Senior Vice President, AFDB
• Ms. Massogbè Touré Diabaté, CEO, Groupe SITA S.A.

Moderator: Dr. Fonteh Akum, Director & Senior Fellow, Africa Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace