Founder and CEO of Engineers and Planners, Ibrahim Mahama, on Thursady participated as a distinguished speaker at Concordia Africa Initiative in London.

Concordia Africa fosters a community of cross-sector leaders to share strategies for economic growth and lasting prosperity on the rapidly-changing and demographically-growing continent.

Ibrahim Mahama was a panellist on a session dubbed '21st Century Investment in Africa'. The session explored broadly what it means to invest in Africa in the 21st century across industries from education to infrastructure, and how to keep African agendas central to the investment story of the continent moving forward.

Mr Mahama, who runs a cross-section of businesses with Intra-African reach, provided invaluable insight, based on his 2 decades-worth of experience investing in Africa. 

He asserted that Africa has enough resources to bring its people out of poverty. 

"We can do better by having confidence in our people,  We need to ensure that the real capital stays in Africa.", Mr Mahama said. He went on to explain that Engineers and Planners have been able to go into Zambia and start off a copper mine using a Ghanaian workforce. Proving that Africans are actually capable if given the chance. 

He intimated with the audience his entrepreneurial journey from having started with only the equivalent of  £500 back in 1997, to have recently signed a 1.7 Billion dollars contract with Goldfields Ghana. 

Former H.E President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo was also a panellist. He offered a critical viewpoint on the way forward for Africa's Investment strategies, drawing from his long political career in Africa's largest economy.  

Other panellists joining the conversation were Chika Chukwujekwu the Head of Africa Business Development at Grant Thornton who was also the session moderator, and Mr Mohammed Nyaoga, Chairman of the Board of Directors - Central Bank of Kenya. 

Mr Nyaoga emphasised on the need for a deliberate effort to Brand Africa and change the African narrative.

Speakers at the 2018 summit included President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and President Nana Akufo-Addo. Strategic Dialogue sessions included discussions on youth employment and entrepreneurship, and financial inclusion, technology, and data analysis.

The 2019 Concordia Africa is a day-long summit in London on February 28, 2019, which is designed to build on the discussions that took place at the 2018 Annual Summit and seek to use the platform to strengthen and expand the community of stakeholders involved in the initiative.