Africa looks inward for capital as 85% of business deals go abroad

About 85% of African private-sector transactions involve companies outside the continent, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told a business summit in Egypt on Saturday. That leaves a sharp challenge for a continent whose leaders want to finance more of its own growth: bringing its businesses closer together. According to Africanews, unlocking African capital and reducing dependence on outside funding were central calls at the inaugural Alamein Africa Forum.

The three-day gathering in the Mediterranean city of El-Alamein brought together more than 20 heads of state and government representatives, alongside business leaders, bankers and development institutions. Their focus was on putting more of Africa’s own financial resources to work. The meeting also gave Egypt a platform for its growing economic engagement with the rest of the continent, as it seeks stronger relationships beyond its longstanding focus on the Middle East and Mediterranean.

A business engine facing outward

Sisi described private businesses as Africa’s main economic engine, saying they account for more than 70% of gross domestic product, the value of goods and services produced. Yet, he said, those businesses remain more closely connected to markets outside Africa than to neighbouring countries. He presented the forum as a way for African firms to find opportunities nearer home and develop partnerships across borders, addressing the gap between their economic weight and their regional connections.

African Union Commission chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf pointed to a recovery in trade between African countries. It reached $220 billion in 2024, or 14.4% of the continent’s total trade, he told delegates. Trade within Africa grew by 12.4% that year, reversing a 5.9% decline in the previous year. Youssouf welcomed the improvement while stressing that the continent still had considerable potential it had not tapped.

“Africa can do much better,” African Union Commission chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf said.

Egypt’s African push

For Egypt, the gathering sits alongside a broader effort to strengthen its position in Africa. Africanews reported that Cairo is increasingly looking south after years of concentrating on the Middle East and Mediterranean. It is seeking to regain influence in a region where China and Gulf powers, particularly the United Arab Emirates, have widened their economic and political presence. Officials put Egyptian investment in Africa at roughly $14 billion, including the $3 billion Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project in Tanzania.

Diplomacy over the Nile also forms part of the backdrop. Egypt is seeking wider African support in its dispute with Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Cairo regards as a threat to its share of Nile water. Ethiopia says the dam, inaugurated last year, is vital to its economic development. Egypt wants a binding agreement governing how it operates.

The next test is how the forum’s recurring agenda supports the push for closer business ties. Under an African Union mandate, it is set to take place every two years, with infrastructure, trade, agriculture, healthcare, mining, technology and renewable energy among its areas of focus. Those sectors will frame future gatherings as leaders pursue more African financing and stronger cross-border partnerships.