Strategic Convergence: Egypt and Afreximbank Advance Preparations for Inaugural Alamein Africa Forum

Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Badr Abdelatty, met with the President of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), George Elombi, in Cairo on 18 September 2026 to complete the organisational and substantive preparations for the forthcoming African Forum in El-Alamein. The first forum, which, in accordance with a decision of the African Union Summit scheduled for February 2026, will be held every two years, will take place in El-Alamein from 2 to 4 October. According to reports from the Egyptian State Information Service, the forum will become a high-level continental platform bringing together African heads of state, private enterprises and multilateral financial institutions to mobilise capital, accelerate project implementation and strengthen intra-African trade networks.

The forum is intended to transform continental development priorities into concrete investment flows spanning strategic areas such as infrastructure, critical minerals, digital innovation, logistics, energy and healthcare value chains. The official parameters detailed within the framework of the African Forum in El-Alamein describe a three-day programme organised jointly with AUDA-NEPAD and the African Union, which will connect political figures with regional industrial operators. Through the alignment of policy, private enterprise and institutional liquidity, the initiative serves as a practical tool for expanding cross-border commercial partnerships and delivering the goals of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

In addition, this meeting is a central event in an integrated series of diplomatic summits being held in Egypt, which are taking place concurrently with the Summit of the Founding States of AUDA-NEPAD on 3 October and the 8th Mid-Year Coordination Meeting of the African Union on 4 October. Emphasising the strategic scale of the event, the diplomatic publication Al-Diplomasy notes that the forum will bring together more than 20 heads of state, as well as investors from across the continent, to create binding regional trade channels. Within this public-private model, Egypt and Afreximbank aim to turn El-Alamein into a key hub for pan-African economic dialogue, resource mobilisation and sustainable industrial growth.