Trade Corridors and Industrial Platforms: From Access to Production
The 16th UK–Africa Investment Summit is a capital mobilisation and deal-execution platform. It connects African governments and project sponsors with investors, banks, DFIs, manufacturers and strategic partners from the United Kingdom, Africa and India.
Under the theme Trade Corridors and Industrial Platforms: From Access to Production, the Summit focuses on moving commercially viable opportunities from dialogue to bankable transactions and productive investment.
The programme progresses deliberately from sovereign alignment and institutional capital to critical minerals, infrastructure, manufacturing, agribusiness and deal execution. Curated roundtables, investor meetings and Deal Room engagement support each stage.
Principal addresses and all three investment sessions take place in the Gladstone Library unless otherwise stated. Timings are BST and subject to final confirmation.
Delegates enter and are received.
Reading RoomRegistration and collection of briefing packs. Networking, tea and coffee.
Reading RoomA 20-minute address on strengthening UK–Africa trade and investment partnerships, supporting African companies expanding internationally through the UK, mobilising capital for infrastructure and energy transition, building pipelines of bankable projects, and increasing two-way investment flows including African investment into the UK.
Building UK and India commercial relationships at operating scale across African markets, what British Indian enterprise contributes to African industrial investment beyond capital, and where a trilateral investment structure outperforms bilateral entry.
Leadership quality as a determinant of long-term capital commitment, the trust required for cross-border investment and joint ventures, and how institutions across the UK, India and Africa develop leaders capable of turning partnerships into investable projects and measurable economic outcomes.
How Africa captures a greater share of the value created by the global AI economy through productive capacity, competitive industries and African-owned technology businesses. The address covers the connectivity, compute, data infrastructure, skills and investment required, and how the UK, India and African countries can build a genuinely reciprocal technology corridor.
How the bilateral framework operates in practice, which instruments materially reduce entry risk, how investor protection and profit repatriation perform when tested, and what a Ugandan sponsor must demonstrate before the High Commission will introduce them to serious UK counterparties.
The Government of Uganda's commitment to a predictable, competitive and investor-friendly business environment, underpinned by President Yoweri Museveni's Pan-African economic vision for deeper regional integration and cross-border investment. The address sets out opportunities for private capital in priority sectors, the Government's role in facilitation and risk-sharing, and Uganda's position as a production and operating base for the East African Community, COMESA and AfCFTA markets.
Financing resilient critical-mineral supply chains and industrial value addition.
This session examines what is required to move African mineral assets from geological potential and licensing to financial close, production, domestic processing and international market access. It considers secure tenure, state participation, credible sponsors, processing economics, dependable power and logistics, responsible sourcing, traceability, secured offtake and capital structures capable of absorbing commodity, construction and political risk.
With Uganda as a central reference point, the discussion will assess how beneficiation, infrastructure, project preparation, legal certainty and investor-grade assurance can convert mineral resources into internationally competitive industrial assets. Particular attention will be given to graphite and other critical-mineral value chains, the commercial requirements of strategic buyers and financiers, and the partnerships needed to move projects from licence and resource potential into financed production and processing.
Curated by the UKAIS Deal Team, this break is designed around pre-matched investor and commercial introductions. Delegates are paired with pre-identified counterparts based on sector alignment, capital requirement, project fit, transaction relevance and market-entry potential, with qualified interest routed into Deal Room meetings, bilateral discussions, Capital Access Clinics or structured post-Summit follow-up.
Reading RoomA focused examination of how public-private partnerships, modern investment legislation and cross-border commercial structures can mobilise Jordanian capital and enterprise into African infrastructure, industry and regional development. The address will highlight opportunities in pharmaceuticals, ICT, chemicals, fertilisers and agricultural products, with particular attention to Jordan–Uganda trade, joint ventures, technology transfer and Uganda's potential as a gateway to East African and AfCFTA markets.
A ministerial overview of Uganda's reforms to improve investor confidence, regulatory predictability and the speed of investment approvals. The address will highlight opportunities across the privatisation and investment pipeline, the de-risking of UK–Uganda and India–Uganda joint ventures, and government support on land, licensing, incentives, infrastructure and cross-agency coordination.
It will also examine how foreign direct investment can deliver local content, technology transfer, supplier development and domestic value addition while remaining internationally competitive, with opportunities across industrial parks, infrastructure, energy, minerals, agro-processing and export-oriented manufacturing.
VIP Ministerial Lunch in Churchill's Bar. Working Lunch by Pearl Bank in the Meston Suite.
Reading Room and as listedAn investor-focused address on how Uganda's security, institutional stability and rule-based operating environment support long-term investment and regional operations. The remarks will cover efficient entry and mobility for investors and technical personnel, protection of major investments and strategic infrastructure, and mechanisms for resolving security, immigration or operational barriers affecting project execution.
From digital access to productive capacity: financing compute, innovation, digital rails and African AI enterprises.
This session maps the capital stack against the financial and technology infrastructure through which investment, trade and data move. It will examine artificial intelligence and computing capacity, export-credit finance, institutional equity, domestic banking liquidity, correspondent banking, digital payments, cross-border settlement, cybersecurity and operational resilience.
The discussion will test how African markets can combine the right financing instruments, local-currency liquidity, technology capability, digital infrastructure, skills, governance and risk allocation to move transactions from investor interest to credit approval and financial close. It will also consider how the UK–Africa–India corridor can combine British capital and financial expertise, Indian engineering and technology capability, and African innovation, talent, production capacity and markets to build scalable enterprises and productive digital infrastructure.
Financing the energy, transport and delivery systems that make production competitive.
This session examines the integrated infrastructure required to make mining, manufacturing, agro-processing and industrial production commercially competitive: transport corridors, land, generation, transmission, distributed energy, storage, EPC delivery, project preparation and infrastructure finance.
Rather than treating energy, transport and industrial infrastructure as separate asset classes, the discussion will consider how they operate as a single investable industrial platform. The panel will focus on bankable PPP, EPC-F, export-credit, blended-finance and institutional-capital models, alongside the allocation of construction, demand, foreign-exchange, land, offtake and sovereign risks. It will distinguish projects ready for financing from those requiring further project preparation or risk mitigation.
A practical perspective on how insurance, risk management and financial planning can strengthen business resilience, protect productive assets and improve investment readiness, creditworthiness and long-term financial discipline.
A commercial interview on scaling higher-value Ugandan coffee into the UK market. The discussion will examine finished-product capability, target UK channels, certification and traceability, processing and packaging capacity, working capital, export logistics and the pathway from buyer or investor interest to a supply agreement or investment transaction.
The concluding intervention will draw together the Summit's outcomes across sovereign alignment, capital mobilisation, critical minerals, technology, infrastructure, industrialisation and deal execution. It will reinforce regional integration through the East African Community and AfCFTA, Uganda's role as a production and investment base for wider African markets, and the requirement for Summit commitments to move into measurable 30-, 60- and 90-day implementation.
The following activities run concurrently with the main programme. Deal Room and closed-session access is limited to pre-qualified or confirmed participants.
Closed B2B and B2G meetings with pre-booked one-to-one investor engagements focused on qualifying projects and progressing commercially relevant opportunities.
Churchill's BarFinancing Beneficiation and Responsible Critical Minerals. A closed working session for selected mining investors, Government of Uganda officials, financiers and private-sector operators. The session will test specific mineral and processing opportunities against investor requirements, including project readiness, beneficiation, responsible sourcing, enabling infrastructure, state and investor participation, capital structure and offtake.
Chair: H.E. Lisa Chesney MBE, British High Commissioner to Uganda. Chatham House Rule applies.
Meston SuitePrivate working lunch for 30 invited guests.
River RoomEstablished in 2010 and now in its 16th edition, the UK–Africa Investment Summit is an execution environment rather than a conference. It exists to move capital, structure industrial partnerships, facilitate trade and support market entry across the UK, Africa and India corridor.
UKAIS 2026 convenes investors, DFIs, banks, government agencies, trade bodies, corporates, exporters, industrial groups, chambers, policymakers and project sponsors around a single objective: converting engagement into executed transactions.
Register to access decision-makers, meet investors, engage trade missions and advance partnerships across critical minerals, infrastructure, energy, technology and industrial production.
Complete the form below and the Summit team will respond directly. Sponsorship and partnership enquiries should be directed to Bart Stern.
Willy Mutenza
Chairman, UK–Africa Investment Summit
willy.mutenza@africauksummit.uk
+44 7790 647089
Bart Stern
bart.stern@africauksummit.uk
+44 7466 053531
The Royal Horseguards Hotel & One Whitehall Place
2 Whitehall Court
London SW1A 2EJ