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Electricity, minerals, and youth emerged as central themes at the New Africa Summit, on the eve of Saudi Arabia’s annual Future Investment Initiative (FII). Business and political leaders gathered in Riyadh on Monday — a day before global titans of finance and tech take center stage — to discuss joint efforts to meet Africa’s development and investment needs.
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With a median age of just 19, Africa’s young population and lack of infrastructure mirror challenges faced by startups in Saudi Arabia, said Tony Elumelu, chairman of the United Bank for Africa, a pan-African lender headquartered in Lagos. Limited support for emerging private businesses and a scarcity of electricity and resources are “killing business” in Africa, he said.
Saudi Minister of Investment Khalid al-Falih underscored Africa’s potential to become a “breadbasket” for surrounding regions, particularly the Gulf, and noted it could also provide critical resources. “Minerals are going to be the new fuel for the next phase of economic development,” al-Falih said. “We don’t want to help Africa; we want to work with Africa to create opportunities for investment. And for that, Africa needs to help itself.”
He said growth on the continent would require improved governance, transparency, and technology adoption, and said his own country offered an example: Technology was a field in which “Saudi Arabia went from a lagger to a leader,” al-Falih said.
Gulf countries are investing heavily in technology, and the UAE and Saudi Arabia recently received the US greenlight to import Nvidia’s cutting-edge chips used to train AI models. Gulf countries are also boosting investments in Africa, with Abu Dhabi’s G42 and Microsoft notably committing $1 billion to establish a data center and AI lab in Kenya.