Private sector must be at centre of Africa’s dev’t agenda – Alex Dadey

Executive Chairman of the KGL Group of Companies, Alex A. Dadey, has underscored the need for Africa to place the private sector at the heart of its development strategy, emphasising that governments alone cannot drive transformation without effective collaboration with business and the diaspora.

Speaking at the Forward Africa Leaders Symposium 2025, held at the NASDAQ headquarters in New York, Mr. Dadey said Africa stands at the threshold of an unprecedented digital transformation that demands genuine and strategic Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs).

These, he noted, are crucial to harnessing innovation, capital, and the execution capacity of the private sector, alongside the legitimacy and enabling authority of governments.

“Governments do not create wealth – the private sector does,” he asserted, stressing that African governments must move beyond treating private enterprises as afterthoughts in national strategies and instead make them central players in policy formulation and implementation.

Mr. Dadey observed that the history of PPPs across Africa has often been “scarred” by transactional arrangements, political vulnerability, and deep public mistrust.

To change this narrative, he said, both sectors must pursue a shared vision anchored on trust, policy alignment, and mutual benefit.

Drawing from his over 30 years of corporate leadership experience across 25 countries and his tenure as former Board Chair of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Mr. Dadey said his advocacy for multilateral collaboration and diaspora inclusion stems from practical insight into what drives sustainable growth.

As Executive Chairman of KGL Group, a diversified Ghanaian conglomerate with interests spanning FinTech, gaming, logistics, real estate, engineering, trade, and commerce, he explained that the company’s success reflects the power of PPPs and good corporate governance.

He stressed that wealth generated through partnerships must create lasting social impact.

“The private sector should not limit PPPs to commercial collaboration but should also act as responsible corporate citizens by filling critical social intervention gaps left uncovered by governments,” he said, referencing the KGL Foundation as the Group’s corporate social responsibility arm fulfilling this mandate.

Mr. Dadey also called for African countries to pursue economic sovereignty by taking ownership of higher segments of global value chains.

He questioned why multinational corporations can generate and repatriate profits from Africa, while African firms often lack reciprocal global reach. “The true path to global scale is to achieve market dominance and ownership in the African theatre first,” he said.

Encouraging innovation suited to Africa’s realities, he urged entrepreneurs to see the continent as the ultimate testing ground for resilience and creativity.

“If your logistics platform can navigate the infrastructural complexities of Kinshasa or Nigeria’s power challenges, it can thrive anywhere in the world,” he noted.

Mr. Dadey further challenged Africans to stop undermining local champions and instead celebrate homegrown business success stories.

“We cannot build economies of scale if we constantly cut down the tallest trees,” he cautioned, adding that nurturing African business champions is vital for building transgenerational enterprises that can one day list on global platforms like NASDAQ.

“Our task as Africans is to build enabling environments where enterprise thrives, where the private sector is empowered, and where the diaspora is engaged not as bystanders but as co-architects of our collective destiny,” he stressed.

Mr. Dadey was speaking at the Forward Africa Leaders Symposium 2025 at the NASDAQ headquarters in New York, USA. The high-level event brought together distinguished African leaders, captains of industry, members of the diplomatic corps, heads of regulatory institutions, public sector agencies, academia, and the African diaspora.

It served as a global platform to deliberate on Africa’s development agenda, focusing on digital transformation, inclusive growth, and the critical role of public-private partnerships in shaping the continent’s future.

Founder and Executive Director at Forward Africa Leaders Symposium Hannah Awuku explained that Forward Africa is more than a symposium—it is a movement dedicated to advancing Africa’s digital ecosystem through strategic partnerships, bold investments, and inclusive innovation.

“Our convening could not be more timely. Africa’s digital economy is surging with unprecedented momentum, projected to contribute over 5% to GDP by the end of 2025. With more than 60% of its population under 25 and increasing internet penetration, the continent is poised to leapfrog traditional development challenges through innovations in mobile money, agritech, and healthtech,” the founder noted.

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