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African Trade in a Changing World
Oct
12

African Trade in a Changing World

African Trade in a Changing World

As global trade fractures along new fault lines, driven by US tariffs, supply chain realignments and shifting geopolitical blocs, Africa sits at a critical juncture. The continent's trade corridors, capital markets, natural resources and expanding workforce give it greater strategic weight today than at any point in a generation. Programmes like Manufacturing Africa have already helped close £2 billion in FDI and create over 100,000 jobs, proof that the opportunity is real and the momentum is building.

About the event

The question is no longer whether Africa matters to global trade. It is whether Africa can shape the terms on which it participates. Development finance reform, critical minerals demand, digital infrastructure expansion and new South-South partnerships are creating openings, but the gap between capital available and capital deployed, and between knowledge created and value commercialised, remains wide.

This closed-door dialogue convenes investors, business leaders, policymakers and capital allocators committed to closing that gap. Held at Birkbeck University of London, our academic partner for this event, the dialogue features an opening keynote address by Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu DBE, President of Wolfson College, University of Cambridge.

Themes we will explore

  • Global Context: How shifting geopolitics and capital flows are reshaping the operating environment for African businesses and investors

  • Doing Business on the Ground: What building and scaling businesses across African markets looks like in practice, from manufacturing and financial services to digital infrastructure

  • Strategic Partnerships: How public and private capital can work together to accelerate sustainable growth across the continent

SPEAKERS

Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu DBE

  • Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu, DBE, FMedSci is President of Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UCL’s Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience, a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a governor on the Wellcome board (one of the largest biomedical sciences research charities in the world), a member of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Council, as well as Chief Scientific Officer of Nanomerics Ltd, a company she co-founded.

    Uchegbu is an inventor. Her company, Nanomerics Ltd, is a clinical-stage biotech company, developing medicines that address sight threatening illnesses, using technology Uchegbu invented in UK academia. Nanomerics has also out licensed medicines developed in her laboratory to a US pharmaceutical company. Technologies developed in Uchegbu’s laboratory have won prizes from the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Nanomerics Ltd. won the King’s Award for Enterprise 2024 in the Innovation category. The King’s Award for Enterprise is the UK’s most prestigious business award.

    Uchegbu’s work has been featured in BBC Radio 4 programmes such as Desert Island Discs, The Life Scientific and BBC Radio 3’s Private Passions as well as on the BBC World Service’s Outlook and Lives Less Ordinary. Uchegbu’s work has also been featured in The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph. Uchegbu has served as Chair of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Scientific Secretary of the Controlled Release Society, and she is the immediate past UCL Provost’s Envoy for Race Equality, a role in which she led on race equality work at UCL. Her work led to the removal of the names of prominent eugenicists from all of UCL’s buildings in 2020. Uchegbu has also presented to the UK House of Commons on the educational racial disparities that lead to a lack of ethnic minority representation in scientific research.

    Uchegbu’s popular science book– Chain Reaction – was published by Hodder and Stoughton in 2026.

    Uchegbu is listed in Bloomsbury Publishing’s Who’s Who.

    Uchegbu was made Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) in the King’s New Years Honours 2025.

Thaddeus Thompson

  • Thaddeus Thompson is Managing Director of Leland Healthcare Advisors and Consultants, and CEO of Stoneshore Investment Group. He has more than 25 years of experience spanning work as a healthcare clinician, consultant and administrator with large health systems, academic medical centres, speciality hospitals and privately held medical clinics across the United States.  He started his career in the Healthcare Consulting Practice of Ernst & Young LLP, where he was a member of the Health Staff Advisory Council.  Since EY, he has served as an executive managing orthopaedics, neurology, neurosurgery and other clinical services.   Thaddeus has led the planning, launch and development of more than 20 new service lines and programs.  Immediately prior to launching Leland Healthcare Advisors & Consultants, he was an administrator in the Mass General Brigham System in Massachusetts, USA. 

    Thaddeus currently serves as President of the National Association of Health Services Executives (NAHSE) Greater Boston Chapter, on the President’s Council of the Massachusetts General Institute of Health Professions and as co-Chair of the Community Leadership Board for the American Diabetes Association - New England.  He is certified in healthcare management as a Fellow (FACHE) of the American College of Healthcare Executives and holds a certificate in Private Company Governance from the Private Directors Association.  Thaddeus received his Master of Healthcare Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Bachelor of Science in Physical Therapy from Florida A&M.

Aum Thacker

  • Aum Thacker is a senior investment professional at TLG Capital, where he has been a central architect of the firm's growth from $50 million to $220 million in AUM. Since joining from Oxford in 2018, he has executed more than a dozen investments totaling close to $80 million across eight African nations. Notably, his expertise in special situations and multi-jurisdictional enforcement has protected principal for investors even amidst sovereign defaults and severe currency devaluations. A pioneer in frontier market credit, he spearheaded the launch of Nigeria's first local currency private credit fund, a NGN $100 billion program backed by 17 pension funds, and co-led a $130 million stressed credit fund attracting sovereign wealth and development finance institutions.

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