African Business and Development: How to Seize Opportunities Despite Risks

Africa is the world region with the strongest population dynamics, resulting in a young and aspiring population that is set to almost double by 2050. More than a fifth of the world’s population will then live in Africa. This offers great opportunities for businesses and countries seeking to advance and diversify. But all too often Africa is perceived as a continent in crisis.

At this conference, we want to contribute to a more balanced assessment of the continent, highlighting the opportunities while painting a realistic picture of the risks involved.

The conference will cover three key areas that we hope are interesting for anyone doing or considering business in African countries, involved in policymaking concerning the continent, or conducting related research:

Topic 1: Africa’s business opportunities

Topic 2: Africa’s trade integration

Topic 3: Africa’s looming debt crisis

We gratefully acknowledge funding by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action and the Federal Ministry of Finance for the project “Wirtschaftswissenschaftliches Cluster Afrikaforschung”, on which the research inputs provided in this conference are based.