The Africa Private Sector Summit (APSS), a Pan-African, Private Sector-led Non-Profit organization that promotes Trade and investment in Africa and is headquartered in Accra, Ghana, has announced the appointment of Professor Kingsley Moghalu of Nigeria, as the new Chairman of its Board of Directors.
Professor Moghalu, one of Africa’s eminent political economists and development practitioners, served as Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria from 2009 to 2014, and subsequently as Professor of Practice in International Business and Public Policy at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Massachusetts, USA.
He is the CEO of Sogato Strategies LLC, a macroeconomic, investment and geopolitical risk consultancy, and the President of the Institute for Governance and Economic Transformation (IGET), a public policy think tank.
Moghalu previously worked in United Nations System for 17 years, rising to the rank of Director. He is the author of several books including Emerging Africa: How The Global Economy’s Last Frontier Can Prosper and Matter.
“The Africa Private Sector Summit is delighted to welcome Kingsley Moghalu as its new Board Chair”, said Mr. Judson Wendell Addy, Founder and outgoing Chairman of APSS, a Liberian-born citizen, a retired Intemational Business Entrepreneur and Pan Africanist. “His international leadership experience, credibility, and networks will help advance the goals of APSS, as we proceed with the roll out of the draft Charter on Private Sector Development, Rights and Protection Environment in Africa (Private Sector Bill of Rights], across all of Africa’s five geographic regions plus diaspora.
“The objective is to strengthen the private sector in African countries, attract increased business investment to the continent, and make strong contnbutions to enable the private sector actively drive implementation of the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) protocols in collaboration with the Pan Africa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PACCI), the Africa Business Council (AfBC) and other stakeholders”.
“l am honored to have been invited to Chair the Board of APSS”, Moghalu said in his statement reacting to his appointment. “In collaboration with board colleagues and the executive leadership team, I will work hard with African companies, and other stakeholders including governments and intemational organizations to advance the critical role of the private sector in the structural transformation of African economies in the context of Africa’s economic integration and African Union’s Agenda 2063, our collective journey to the Africa we want”.
The APSS is leading the continent’s private sector and other stakeholders via an EcoSystem based approach, leveraging the African philosophy of Ubuntu, to develop a Private Sector Bill of Rights, for an enabling business environment in Africa. The APSS also collaborates closely with another organization, the African Education Trust Fund (AETF) headed by Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, a former Minister of Trade and Industry and Minister of Education in Ghana.
The APSS was instrumental to the establishment of the AETF, and the goal of the AETF is to overhaul Africa’s education systems to produce the skill sets needed for the economic transformation of the continent in the 21st century.
The APSS approved structure in the medium term, is to have a 13-member APSS Advisory Board and a 17 member Executive Board, made up of distinguished personalities from Africa’s 5+1 regional blocks – East Africa, Central Africa, North Africa, West Africa, and Southern Africa, and the African Diaspora.
To fill these positions, APSS recently announced its invitation of nominations of candidates into its Advisory and Executive Boards. Part of the restructuring arrangement for the new phase of APSS ahead of the roll out indudes; [a] the cofounders of APSS have transitioned into the Advisory Board and Executive Boards as, members respectively, [b] Mr. Addy, the Founder and outgoing Chair, becomes a member of the Advisory Board and Chair Ementus. To strengthen its executive capacity, APSS also recently appointed a CEO, transitioned one of the co-founders into an Executive Director and created three Director positions.
Professor Moghalu will serve as the Chairperson of both the Advisory Board and the Executive Board.
