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The 5th edition of the Africa CEO Forum opened on Monday in Geneva, Switzerland, with the theme, "Rethinking Africa's business model." In his keynote address, Amir Ben Yahmed, Founder and President of the Forum, spoke about the urgency to overhaul Africa's business model due to declining growth in African economies.

The Africa CEO Forum is organised by Groupe Jeune Afrique, publisher of The Africa Report, in partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB). Over 1,100 participants from 42 countries, including 40 ministers and two heads of state, are participating in this year's conference, scheduled for March 20-21 in Geneva.

According to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), GDP growth rate for sub-Saharan Africa in 2016 was 1.5% and 1.6%, respectively. GDP forecast for 2017 is around 2.8-2.9%. Growth on the continent has declined mainly due to the decline in commodity prices.   

"Even more alarming is the fact that the two biggest economies in Africa, Nigeria and South Africa, which produce 32% of the continent's production, have been very badly affected," said Ben Yahmed.

The President of the Forum also spoke about the achievement of the Africa CEO Forum, from humble beginnings in 2012 to becoming "the most significant meeting of the African private sector."
 
AfDB President, Akinwumi Adesina, challenged governments to embrace, incentivize and unleash the potential of the private sector in order to boost Africa's economic growth and lift millions out of poverty.

"Like a bird flies with two wings, so must economies: public and private sectors must be in a synchronous balance," said Akinwumi, who was represented by Pierre Guislain, AfDB Vice President in charge of the private sector, infrastructure and industrialization.

The President of the Forum also announced the launch of the African CEO Barometer, an initiative aimed at measuring the confidence in African CEOs and the expectations and prospects of key leaders in the private sector. The Barometer is based on a survey of more than 1,000 African CEOs.

According to the findings of the survey, 61% of African business leaders believe their activities have been negatively impacted by the global economic downturn in the past few months.

The barometer identified three groups of emerging countries: 1) countries that were not affected by the economic decline and are optimistic about the future (Senegal, Morocco); 2) countries that were affected but remain optimistic (Nigeria, Cameroon); 3) countries that were not affected but are pessimistic about the future (Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, DRC).

In terms of what should be the priority of governments, 83% of African CEOs asked governments to improve the business climate, while 65% asked for a fight against fraud and corruption. Only 51% consider building of infrastructure as what is important for the government to address.