Mrs. Perez Ochieng
Chief Executive Officer, SACOMA Global Foods Innovation
📍 UK–Africa Business, Trade & Investment Summit 2025
📅 12 September 2025 | The Royal Horseguards Hotel & One Whitehall Place, London
Mrs. Perez Ochieng, CEO of SACOMA Global Foods Innovation, delivered one of the Summit’s most visionary addresses — redefining Africa’s agricultural future from raw-produce export to knowledge-based, IP-driven innovation.
Having evolved from a UK fresh-produce importer into a multi-market innovation and R&D hub spanning the UK, South Korea, Taiwan, and Africa, SACOMA now positions intellectual property as the true foundation of Africa’s competitiveness in global food systems.
“We’ve moved from talking about value addition to building knowledge assets that define Africa’s place in global food systems.” — Mrs. Perez Ochieng
Mrs. Ochieng’s insights resonated with Nelson Tugume’s Inspire Africa Coffee model, which merges agribusiness, traceability, and digital storytelling. Both leaders advocate that Africa’s next comparative advantage lies not in commodities, but in innovation ecosystems that turn creativity and culture into globally tradable value.
Their synergy also aligns with Hon. Ruth Nankabirwa’s clean-energy industrialisation agenda, which powers agro-innovation through affordable renewable energy and green fertiliser production.
Together, these approaches form a tri-sector model of transformation:
“Africa’s competitiveness will come not from what it grows, but from how it owns, protects, and powers its innovation.” — Mrs. Perez Ochieng
Mrs. Ochieng emphasised that Africa’s food systems must be future-proof and climate-smart. She called for stronger support for research and digital tools that enable nano-water management, precision irrigation, and carbon-efficient production.
Her vision places youth innovators and diaspora technologists at the centre of this transformation — as inventors, brand builders, and co-owners of Africa’s next-generation agribusinesses.
By combining technology, creativity, and sustainability, SACOMA’s model transforms Africa’s role in global value chains — from supplier to source of intellectual property, digital capability, and cultural capital.
SACOMA’s innovation pathway demonstrates that the future of African agribusiness lies in knowledge ownership, brand protection, and climate-smart transformation. Through a powerful alignment between innovation (Ochieng), industrial energy (Nankabirwa), and entrepreneurship (Tugume), Uganda and its partners are building a “Knowledge-to-Value Economy” — where Africa exports not just crops, but creativity, technology, and globally protected brands.
Join us at the 2026 UK–Africa Summit:
📅 Date: 11 Sept 2026
📍 Venue: The Royal Horseguards Hotel, London
🔗 Register: africauksummit.uk
🎥 Watch: ukeastafricasummit.uk
🌐 Website: ukafricasummit.uk
📢 Socials: @ukafricasummit on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Facebook
