Hundreds of participants from across Africa and the world, as well as the Chambers of Commerce and Investment Authorities, are expected to grace the annual pan-African business conference, Crystal Ball Africa 2018.

Crystal Ball Africa is an annual pan-African business conference hosted by AB & David in collaboration with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), the Ghana Business & Finance Magazine and other partners across Africa. 

Representatives of the European Union (EU), AFREXIM, the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) and Chambers of Commerce and Investment Authorities will also be in attendance.

Crystal Ball Africa provides a forum for business people and professionals doing or seeking to do business in Africa to discuss issues that will impact their business in the New Year.

The 2018 edition of the forum will take place Wednesday at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra and promises to provide advance insights on policy and legislation that will impact businesses in Africa in the year and beyond.

"The Crystal Ball is an event that looks into the future of African businesses. As an annual event, we focus on what the next one year will be for businesses and economy of the African continent is likely to be.

"We bring international businesses and others from across the continent to Ghana, every January in the last five years to give businesses a heads up," Senior Partner and Executive Chairman of AB & David, David Ofosu-Dorte told Joy Business. 

He added that the conference highlights what may change in the year ahead, opportunities emerging that businesses could take advantage of and what areas businesses must expend their energies on. 

The theme for this year's event is “Expanding Businesses and Trade Across Africa – Opportunities Arising Out of the Continental Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) and Growing Intra-Africa Trade”.

"This year we are looking at the 5-15% growth in inter Africa trade as compared to the average of 35-60% trade in other continents," Mr Ofosu-Dorte said.