El-Alamein, Egypt, hosted more than 20 heads of state and government representatives on Saturday, along with business leaders, bankers and development institutions, for the inaugural Alamein Africa Forum. The message from the three-day summit was aimed squarely at investors and financiers: Africa’s capital remains largely untapped, and the continent can “do much better” in financing its own growth rather than leaning on external funding.
The numbers underpinning that argument came from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who told delegates that Africa’s private sector remains the continent’s main economic engine, accounting for more than 70 percent of gross domestic product. Yet African businesses, he argued, remain more connected to markets outside the continent than to their neighbours.
“Around 85 percent of African private-sector transactions are conducted with companies outside the continent,” al-Sisi said, framing the forum as an effort to help African firms identify opportunities closer to home and build cross-border partnerships.
The trade figures gave weight to the case. Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, chairperson of the African Union Commission, told delegates that intra-African trade reached $220 billion in 2024, accounting for 14.4 percent of the continent’s trade. That represented growth of 12.4 percent for the year, a rebound from a 5.9 percent contraction the previous year. Youssouf called the trend encouraging but insisted that “Africa can do much better,” pointing to significant untapped potential despite the progress made.
For Egypt itself, the summit marks a commercial and strategic pivot. After long focusing on the Middle East and the Mediterranean, Cairo is increasingly turning south, seeking to reclaim influence in a continent where China and Gulf powers, especially the United Arab Emirates, have expanded their economic and political footprint. Officials estimate Egyptian investments in Africa at around $14 billion, a portfolio that includes Tanzania’s $3 billion Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project.
Meanwhile, the gathering carries diplomatic weight with economic stakes attached. It comes as Egypt seeks broader African support in its long-running dispute with Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Cairo views as a threat to its share of Nile waters. Ethiopia maintains that the dam, inaugurated last year, is essential for its economic development, while Egypt argues that its operation should be governed by a binding agreement.
Beyond this edition, the forum is set to become a biennial event under an African Union mandate, with a focus on infrastructure, trade, agriculture, healthcare, mining, technology and renewable energy. For investors and operators watching the continent, the message from El-Alamein was that the capital to fund Africa’s growth exists closer to home than current transaction patterns suggest, and that closing that gap is now an explicit policy priority. Whether the next edition, two years from now, can show those transaction patterns shifting inward remains the open question.