Clifford Machoka, head of external affairs and marketing at Nation Media Group has described this year’s Kusi Ideas Festival as an avenue to drive further the conversations of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) by way of connecting African businesses.
Speaking on Asaase Radio’s Accra-Lagos-Joburg programme on Saturday, 4 December 2021, Machoka said the festival will create an avenue for the drivers of AfCFTA such as innovation, agriculture, agribusiness to pave the way for businesses to achieve their purpose through the continental free trade area.
“The main focus will be on the African Continental Free Trade Area and the many things that will drive the AfCFTA, the aspect of innovation, agriculture, agribusiness and of course, the creative art industry.”
“We see that the Kusi Ideas Festival will create that opportunity not only to drive the discussions forward but, to also to create an important connection between East Africa and West Africa which for many years, we’ve been struggling to create these connections. And we see Kusi as the beginning point of creating these important networks,” he said.
This year’s conference, which will be a hybrid is under the theme; “How Africa Transforms After the Virus,” and sub-titled; “Beyond the Return: African Diaspora and New Possibilities,” will be held in Ghana from 10 to 11 December 2021.
The festival will be opened by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, with other presidents including Paul Kagame of Rwanda and President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda
Several business and political leaders across Africa are also billed to grace the occasion.
About Kusi
The Nation Media Group (NMG) launched the Kusi Ideas Festival early in 2019 as part of its 60th anniversary celebrations, to be an “ideas transaction market” for the challenges facing Africa, and the various solutions and innovations the continent is undertaking to secure its future in the 21st century.
Kusi is the southerly tradewind that blows over the Indian Ocean between April to mid-September, and enabled trade up north along the east African coast and between Asia and Africa for millennia.
Beyond trade, over the centuries, Kusi and other tradewinds made possible cultural, intellectual, and technological exchanges, and considerably shaped the history of the nations on the east side of Africa, its hinterland, and the wider Indian Ocean rim.
In the 21st century, the spirits of the tradewinds express themselves in new ways. The Indian Ocean is a rich bed of the fibre optic cables that make the Information Age possible in a large part of Africa.
The inaugural edition of the festival was held in Kigali, Rwanda and co-hosted by Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda.
Nicholas Brown
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