World leaders speak on Africa’s extractive industry at AIRC Summit in Washignton, D.C

The EBII Group has set the 2024 edition of the Africa Investment Risk and Compliance (AIRC) Summit to be hosted at Ronald Reagan Building in Washington DC, USA on June 27-28, 2024.

This year’s summit themed "Sustainable Resource Extraction in a Changing

Climate: Compliance, Strategies, and Innovations” seeks to address critical aspects of environmental sustainability, financial integrity and responsible resource management of the extractive industry in Africa.

The focus of the summit has become imperative since projections by the World

Bank have revealed production of minerals, such as graphite, lithium and cobalt, could increase by nearly 500% by 2050, to meet the growing demand for clean energy technologies. The report equally estimates over 3 billion tons of minerals and metals will be needed to deploy wind, solar and geothermal power, as well as energy storage, required for achieving a below 2°C future.

Africa thus has a critical role to play in meeting these demands because the

continent hosts the largest deposit of lithium. It is equally the home to 30 percent of the world’s mineral reserves, eight percent of the world’s natural gas, and 12 percent of the world’s oil reserves. Also, 40 percent of the world’s gold and up to 90 percent of its chromium and platinum sit in Africa. However Foreign investment is instrumental in driving the African extractive industry forward, with multinational corporations and international financial institutions playing key roles in exploration, extraction, and infrastructure development. More critically will be partnerships with local stakeholders and governments to ensure that resource extraction benefits local communities and promotes sustainable development.

This forms the basis for the 2024 Africa Investment Risk and Compliance (AIRC) Summit which will assemble leading Africa head of states, business leaders as well as investors around the globe to find solutions to integrate financial crime compliance with sustainable development objectives and environmental protection measures, to ensure the natural resources of Africa are properly utilized to drive economic growth, alleviate poverty, and improve the quality of life for its people.

The summit will host different panel to deliberate on key topics including:

Mapping Africa's extractive resources

Navigating investment challenges

Risk Perception of Africa vs. Reality

Supply chain/corruption risk in the African extractives sector

Rethinking risk and compliance in the age of AI

Empowering diaspora partnerships for sustainable development

Understanding regulatory frameworks and governance standards in Africa.

The AIRC summit has been hosting leading Africa presidents, and other

world leaders, as well as business leaders in one innovative space to unlock

the enormous potential of Africa.