Coronation Group Chairman Agboje Ag-Imaukhude has said Africa has the capital it needs for its transformation.
According to him, “The question is whether we have the institutional courage to deploy it. We have pension funds sitting in low-yielding government securities, while transformational businesses are struggling for growth capital.”
Ag-Emoukhuede said this before joining the opening panel at the 2025 Africa Financial Summit (AFIS) in Casablanca on Monday, November 3.
He will join ministers and the IFC Managing Director on the historic panel, setting the tone for the continent's financial sovereignty.
The keynote session titled – “Unlocking Africa’s Financial Power: Time for Massive Domestic Capital Mobilization” will lay the strategic foundation for two days of important conversations on Africa’s financial sovereignty, which will address the continent’s most pressing question: How can Africa harness the trillions of untapped domestic capital for its own transformation?
Speaking ahead of the summit, Agboje Ag-Imaukhude said: “We have insurance assets standing safely despite growing infrastructure deficit. This is not a problem of lack of capital; it is an allocation problem, a confidence problem and ultimately a leadership problem.
“AFIS represents a moment of reckoning. Will Africa's financial institutions step up to finance Africa's future, or will we remain comfortable custodians of untapped potential? At the coronation, we have made our choice: building integrated infrastructure that channels African capital toward African prosperity.”
Also read: Africa CEO Forum 2025: Ag-Imoukhuede to headline conversation on family-owned businesses
AFIS 2025 convenes over 1,000 financial services leaders under the theme Unlocking Africa's Financial Sovereignty: From Savings to Strategic Power.
The resulting panel includes Ag-Imoukhouede along with Nadia Fetta Alaoui, Minister of Economy and Finance of the Kingdom of Morocco; Makhtar Diop, Managing Director, International Finance Corporation (IFC); and Cheikh Diba, Minister of Finance and Budget, Republic of Senegal, a group of minds uniquely positioned to lead the way in moving Africa from external dependence to self-directed prosperity.
The panel faces harsh realities: the African Development Bank's 2025 economic outlook warns that “external dependence is not a good development strategy.” Despite a 75 percent increase in foreign direct investment last year, times are bleak due to aid cuts and reduced global activity due to US tariffs and geopolitical tensions.
Africa must now look to the trillions held in pension funds, sovereign wealth vehicles, insurance assets, commercial banks, fintech platforms and foreign exchange reserves.
The discussion will examine how debt-burdened African countries can harness this vast capital pool to transform 1.55 billion Africans into active capital market participants, funding under-resourced MSMEs, critical energy infrastructure and the digital innovation that drives continental growth.
Key themes include the mobilization of institutional capital away from the security of government debt into productive private sector investment; supporting African champions in regions dominated by international players; and leveraging fintech platforms to transform household savings into transformative enterprises.
With expertise in investment banking, insurance, asset management and technology, Coronation Group brings practical experience in raising domestic capital in Africa’s most challenging markets, a perspective that positions Ag-Imokhuede as both a contributor and catalyst in this defining conversation.
