Speakers & Featured Guests
Speakers and featured guests are confirmed on a rolling basis and will be added here as they are announced. Delegations from resource-rich nations across West, East, Southern and North Africa, and from the continent’s regional and development-finance institutions, have been invited.
Joe Riggio
Founding Partner, Jett Capital
Joseph is a Founding Partner of Jett Capital and currently serves as Managing Partner of the firm’s Investment Banking Committee. He is a trusted advisor to corporations and institutional advisors alike having spent over two decades structuring sophisticated transactions and investment strategies.
Prior to founding Jett Capital in 2013, Joseph was a Managing Director at Casimir Capital where under his leadership of the firm’s Capital Markets Division became the leading US advisor to global natural resources and energy companies. He is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Mitch Nussbaum
Co-Chair, Loeb & Loeb LLP
Mitch Nussbaum is founder and co-chair of Loeb & Loeb's SPACs practice and one of the nation's leading capital markets lawyers. For more than 20 years, he has represented issuers, underwriters and investors in hundreds of SPAC IPOs, business combinations, PIPE financings and other public market transactions, and has consistently been ranked among the top U.S. IPO lawyers by completed offerings. Mitch also advises companies around the world on accessing the U.S. capital markets and is widely recognized for his experience structuring cross-border transactions, de-SPAC combinations and public company governance matters.
Patrick A. Sturgeon
Managing Partner, Brookline Capital Markets
Mr. Sturgeon is a Managing Partner at Brookline and focuses on the firm’s public financing, private capital raising, secondary, and capital markets advisory business lines. On the public financing front, Mr. Sturgeon focuses on the SPAC effort, primarily underwriting IPOs and acting in an M&A Advisor capacity. Prior to joining Brookline, Mr. Sturgeon served as a Managing Director at Axiom Capital Management. He spent approximately a decade at Freeman & Co., focusing on M&A in the Financial Services sector. Throughout his career, he has focused on growth companies and, in particular, financial services, technology and healthcare enterprises.
Mr. Sturgeon received his B.A. in Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and his M.B.A. in Finance from New York University.
Amaka Anku
Practice Head, Africa, Eurasia Group
Amaka helps clients understand the interaction of politics, policy, and markets across African and emerging markets. Her research helps business leaders understand how global geopolitics drive economic outcomes and shape the business environment. Amaka is a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations and has taught a graduate course on political risk analysis at Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. Amaka often appears on major TV networks and is frequently quoted in the world's leading newspapers.
Prior to Eurasia Group, Amaka worked with various development-focused organizations across Africa. She also practiced law in the international arbitration and litigation group of global law firm Shearman & Sterling, LLP, where she represented multinational corporations in multimillion-dollar, cross-border disputes. She grew up in Enugu, Nigeria, and speaks Igbo and French. Amaka holds a bachelor's degree from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and a doctor of law degree from Harvard Law School.
Gracelin Baskaran
Director, Critical Minerals Security Program
Dr. Gracelin Baskaran is director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She is a mining economist and has spent over a decade working on critical minerals globally. She began her career in South Africa’s platinum belt and later spent five years at the World Bank in South Africa, where she coauthored the book Africa’s Resource Future: Harnessing Natural Resources for Economic Transformation during the Low-Carbon Transition. She recently published a policy playbook, Critical Minerals and the Future of the United States Economy, and is now writing a book on an international strategy for critical minerals engagement for the United States. Dr. Baskaran is also an adjunct associate professor at Georgetown University, where she teaches critical minerals in the Center for Security Studies. She was a Fulbright Scholar and has held positions at the University of Cambridge, the University of London, and the University of Cape Town. Dr. Baskaran has been cited as an expert in The Economist, Financial Times, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Fox, CNN, Bloomberg, and BBC, and regularly appears on television. She has authored more than 200 policy reports, white papers, and op-eds. In 2025, Mining Journal ranked Dr. Baskaran No. 8 on its “Top 50 Most Influential” list—the only woman in the top 12. She regularly speaks at international conferences and policymaker forums and has testified before the U.S. Congress. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge.
William Kipchirchir Samoei Arap Ruto, CGH
President of the Republic of Kenya and Commander-in-Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces
William Ruto is the fifth and current President of Kenya, sworn in on 13 September 2022 after previously serving as the country's first elected Deputy President under Uhuru Kenyatta from 2013 to 2022. He holds a PhD in plant ecology from the University of Nairobi and rose through Kenyan politics via the United Democratic Alliance, which he founded ahead of his 2022 presidential run.
Official site: https://www.president.go.ke/
Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Aremu Obasanjo, GCFR
Former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999–2007); former Military Head of State (1976–1979)
Olusegun Obasanjo is one of Africa's most consequential elder statesmen and the only Nigerian to have led the country as both a military head of state and a democratically elected civilian president. Born on 5 March 1937 in Abeokuta, Ogun State, he rose through the Nigerian Army, served as a battlefield commander during the Nigerian Civil War, and accepted the Biafran surrender in January 1970. As military head of state from 1976 to 1979, he presided over the country's return to democratic rule — the only Nigerian military ruler ever to voluntarily hand power to an elected civilian government. He returned to office as the elected civilian President of the Fourth Republic from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007, a tenure marked by debt-relief negotiations with the Paris Club, banking-sector consolidation, telecoms liberalization, and Pan-African leadership including a founding role in the African Union and NEPAD. Since leaving office he has remained active as an author, farmer, and internationally recognized mediator through the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library and the Africa Leadership Forum, leading peace and election-observation missions across the continent.
His Excellency Senator Kashim Shettima Mustapha, GCON
Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
Kashim Shettima is the 15th Vice President of Nigeria, inaugurated alongside President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on 29 May 2023 on the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket. Born on 2 September 1966 in Maiduguri, Borno State, he trained as an agricultural economist at the University of Maiduguri and University of Ibadan before spending more than a decade in commercial banking, rising to General Manager at Zenith Bank. He served as Governor of Borno State from 2011 to 2019 — a tenure defined by leading civilian recovery from the Boko Haram insurgency, including the construction of "mega schools" for tens of thousands of children orphaned by the conflict — and then represented Borno Central in the Nigerian Senate from 2019 to 2023. As Vice President he chairs the National Economic Council and has led the administration's engagement on food security, digital economy, and Northern Nigeria's reconstruction agenda, while frequently representing President Tinubu at major international convenings including UNGA and the Russia–Africa and China–Africa summits.
Hassan Sheikh Mohamud
President of the Federal Republic of Somalia
Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is the 10th President of Somalia, currently serving his second, non-consecutive term after being re-elected on 15 May 2022 and sworn in on 23 May 2022; he previously held the office from 2012 to 2017, making him the first Somali leader ever re-elected to the presidency. A former academic and civil-society leader, he co-founded SIMAD University in Mogadishu and worked extensively with UN and international agencies on peacebuilding and education during the civil-war years.
Official site: https://www.somalia.gov.so/excutive/the-president
Rt. Hon. Dr. Justin Nsengiyumva
Prime Minister of the Republic of Rwanda
Justin Nsengiyumva was sworn in as Rwanda's 12th Prime Minister on 25 July 2025, appointed by President Paul Kagame. A trained economist, he holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Leicester, a Master's from the University of Nairobi, and a BCom from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. His earlier public-service career in Rwanda included roles as Permanent Secretary in the Ministries of Trade & Industry and Education, board seats at RwandAir Express and the Rwanda Investment and Export Promotion Agency, and, most recently, Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda from February 2025 until his elevation to the premiership. He also spent more than a decade in the United Kingdom, working as a senior economist at the Office of Rail and Road and at the Department for Work and Pensions.
Official site: https://www.primature.gov.rw/
H.E. Dr. Workneh Gebeyehu, PhD
Executive Secretary, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)
Dr. Workneh Gebeyehu has served as the sixth Executive Secretary of IGAD — the eight-member Horn of Africa regional bloc — since assuming office in November 2019. An Ethiopian diplomat and public servant, he previously served as Ethiopia's Minister of Foreign Affairs (2016–2019) and Minister of Transport (2012–2016), with earlier senior roles in the Oromia Regional State administration and the federal security sector. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in International Relations from Addis Ababa University and a PhD in Criminology from the University of South Africa (UNISA). As Executive Secretary he serves as IGAD's chief executive and principal spokesperson, and currently also chairs the African Union's Coordination and Collaboration Platform of Regional Economic Communities.
Official site: https://igad.int/executive-secretary/
HRH Muhammadu Sanusi II, CON (Sanusi Lamido Sanusi)
16th Emir of Kano; former Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (2009–2014)
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is one of Nigeria's most prominent bankers, Islamic intellectuals, and traditional rulers. Born in 1961 into Kano's ruling Fulani Sullubawa clan, he built a career at United Bank for Africa and First Bank of Nigeria before being appointed Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2009, where he led a landmark rescue and consolidation of the Nigerian banking system in the wake of the global financial crisis, introduced the cashless-policy framework, and championed Islamic finance. He was named Central Bank Governor of the Year for 2010 by The Banker (Financial Times). Enthroned as the 14th Emir of Kano in June 2014, he was controversially deposed in 2020, then reinstated on 23 May 2024 as the 16th Emir following the reversal of the emirate's earlier partition. He continues to speak publicly on monetary policy, fiscal reform, and Northern Nigerian development.
Dr. Mansur Muhtar
Chairman, Bank of Industry (Nigeria); former Vice President, Islamic Development Bank; former Minister of Finance, Federal Republic of Nigeria
Dr. Mansur Muhtar is a Nigerian economist with a career spanning central banking, sovereign finance, and multilateral development institutions. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Sussex and began his career at the Central Bank of Nigeria before moving to the World Bank as an economist (1992–2000). He served as Nigeria's Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy under President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua from 2008 to 2010, then represented Africa Group I on the Board of the World Bank Group as Executive Director from 2011 to 2014. From 2016 to 2024 he served as Vice President for Country Operations at the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah, and in September 2024 President Bola Tinubu appointed him Chairman of the Board of Nigeria's Bank of Industry. He also sits on the UN Secretary-General's Scaling Up Nutrition Movement Lead Group.
Dr. Issa Faye
Director General, Global Practices and Partnerships, IsDB
Dr. Issa Faye is the Director-General for Global Practices and Partnerships at the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB). In this role, he leads the GPP Directorate to support the IsDB strategy, overseeing technical expertise across infrastructure, climate finance, food security, and capacity development. He also guides global advocacy, resource mobilization, and co-financing efforts, while serving as the IsDB Sherpa to the G20 and Heads of MDBs Group.
Previously, Dr. Faye was the Senior Economic Advisor and Head of the Global Industries Economics Unit at IFC, where he also served as Director of Sector Economics and Development Impact, creating the AIMM system. Earlier in his career, he spent nearly a decade at the African Development Bank, including as Research Division Manager, after starting as an Economist at the World Bank.
He holds a Ph.D. in Economics, previously lectured at the University of Auvergne/CERDI, and conducted research for CNRS in France. Dr. Faye has published extensively on private sector development, impact investing, financial inclusion, trade, and economic development.