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
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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.
Aum Thacker
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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.
Thaddeus Thompson
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Thaddeus Thompson has spent more than 25 years leading clinical services and making the operating decisions that drive growth in healthcare. He has led neuroscience, orthopaedic and rehabilitation service lines at hospitals across the United States, including UF Health, Texas Health Resources and Mass General Brigham, where he authored strategic plans and oversaw inpatient admission and outpatient visit volumes. At Martha's Vineyard Hospital, part of Mass General Brigham, he was the Administrative Director for Clinical and Perioperative Services and the hospital's first Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, where he led the launch four new clinical services and grew diagnostic imaging and rehabilitation services by more than 30% in two years. He was Director of Neurosciences & Orthopaedics at Texas Health Resources, Administrative Director (Neuroscience Institute) and Director of Rehabilitation Services at UF Health Jacksonville. He started his management career as a Consultant with Ernst & Young.
He now runs two businesses. As Managing Director of Leland Healthcare Advisors & Consultants, he provides data analytics, performance improvement, business development and digital transformation services to healthcare, life sciences and biotech companies. As Chief Executive Officer of Leland Investment, he acquires and grows healthcare industry businesses. He has been a member of the African Business Trade Association's Advisory Committee on health since 2025.
Tom Fox-Chapman
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Tom Fox-Chapman is the Impact, Results, and Learning Lead for Manufacturing Africa. He has over a decade of experience designing and implementing impact strategies for impact investors, donors, and businesses and successfully led complex, multi-million-dollar programs across sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on climate-smart solutions, results-based financing, and food systems. On Manufacturing Africa, Tom leads design and delivery of research to understand the systemic impact and delivery lessons learnt to adapt and inform current and future programming.
Dr Tim Weiss
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Tim Weiss is an award-winning researcher and educator, currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship at the Imperial College. His research programme investigates two fields of inquiry: Frontier Markets and Entrepreneurship. Tim’s work received the Distinguished Winner award for Responsible Research in Management by the Academy of Management Fellows. He has also been awarded the Aboyeji Medal by the Harambeans. He is a founding member of the Interdisciplinary Network for Technology and Entrepreneurship Research in African Societies and co-editor of the open-access book Digital Kenya: An Entrepreneurial Revolution in the Making.
Professor Kevin Ibeh FCIM, FRSA
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Professor Kevin Ibeh, PhD, FCIM, FRSA, is Professor of Marketing and International Business and former Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) at Birkbeck, University of London. He is also Commissioner of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, UK, where he recently led the founding of the Commonwealth Startup Fellowship scheme. An expert consultant/adviser to the World Bank, OECD, UNCTAD, African Union among others, Professor Ibeh contributed to the African Development Dynamics Reports 2023 and 2024, working with the African Union Commission and the OECD. He currently serves as the UK Representative to the Board of the European International Business Academy, Member of the British Council Higher Education Sector Group, Warwick Africa Hub’s External Advisory Board, and Lead Series Editor of the Palgrave Series on Entrepreneurship in Africa. Professor Ibeh previously chaired the Universities UK sub-Saharan African policy network, led UK academic departments, hosted major international scholarly conferences and guest-edited several influential journals. His research has mainly focused on advancing knowledge about firm internationalisation, international entrepreneurship, and Africa’s emerging multinationals, and has resulted in over 100 scholarly articles and four books.
Wahid Ben Tanfous
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Wahid Ben Tanfous is an Investment Director at British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution, with extensive experience across trade finance, financial institutions and emerging markets.
His work focuses on expanding access to trade and supply-chain finance across Africa and other emerging markets, working with banks and financial institutions to address liquidity constraints, share risk and mobilise capital into markets where access to finance remains limited.
Wahid is particularly interested in how development finance institutions can use risk sharing, local-currency solutions, guarantees, liquidity and private-capital mobilisation to strengthen African financial systems and ensure that trade finance reaches SMEs and businesses operating in frontier markets.
He is a regular participant in international trade-finance discussions and has recently contributed to industry conversations on closing the SME trade finance gap, mobilisation of capital, local-currency financing and the role of DFIs in supporting trade across emerging markets.
Jennifer Mukuka Njelesani
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Jennifer Mukuka Njelesani is a highly accomplished finance and strategic management professional with over 36 years of experience across public, private, and non-profit sectors in Zambia and South Africa. She brings to the table an exceptional track record of leadership, financial stewardship, institutional reform, and governance.
Jennifer currently serves as Director in the Cabinet Office of the Government of Zambia, where she provides high-level policy and technical advisory support on national economic development, debt sustainability and public sector reforms. She has played a strategic role in the implementation of Zambia’s 7th and 8th National Development Plans and the Economic Recovery Programme.
Previously, she served as Senior Manager and Interim CFO at the Auditor General of South Africa, where she successfully led a financial turnaround strategic plan, oversaw ERP implementation, and presented unqualified financial statements to Parliament. She also held senior consulting roles at KPMG and MSI Management Consultants, where she led financial systems reforms, mentored CFOs in the public sector, and conducted forensic audits.
In the private sector, Jennifer held key finance roles at Kaya FM in Johannesburg, Zamcell (now Airtel Zambia), and Zambia Sugar Plc. Her leadership has consistently resulted in improved financial performance, strengthened governance, and operational efficiencies.
Jennifer has served on numerous boards and is currently serving on the Boards of African Grey Insurance Limited, Misenge Environmental and Technical Services, and Adrian Mungandu International College. With her Finance background, she usually leads the audit, risk, and finance committees of these Boards.
A Fellow of both the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (UK) and the Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants (ZICA), Jennifer also holds an MBA from the University of Roehampton and is currently pursuing a PhD in Business and Management.
She is also actively engaged in community service, having served as Treasurer of the Roma Parish Church and Lions Club of Roma. Her leadership philosophy is grounded in integrity, excellence, inclusivity, and sustainable impact.
Nabil Chahdoura
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Nabil Chahdoura is a senior executive and independent advisor with extensive international experience across banking, investment management, capital markets and diversified businesses, with a career spanning North America, the GCC and Africa.
He is a former CEO of a commercial bank with extensive experience in P&L leadership, strategy, corporate and investment banking, governance, risk management and transformation. He also held senior investment, treasury and capital markets roles in the GCC and Canada. During his tenure with KIPCO Group, including as Deputy General Manager of United Gulf Financial Services – North Africa, he was involved in the development and transformation of its asset-management platform, covering investment management, private equity and venture capital, capital raising, institutional relationships, portfolio management and strategic transactions.
His experience covers a broad range of sectors, including financial services, agribusiness, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, industry, infrastructure, technology, fintech and renewable energy. He has held various board and chairman positions and worked extensively with DFIs, sovereign wealth funds, institutional investors, family offices, entrepreneurs and senior corporate stakeholders across Africa and the GCC.
Today, Nabil works as an independent executive advisor, supporting businesses and financial institutions on strategy, investment, capital raising, restructuring, digital transformation, strategic partnerships and market expansion.
He holds an MSc in Finance from HEC Montréal and is a Canadian and Tunisian citizen. He speaks Arabic, French and English.
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