Beyond the oil: Why Africa's financial elite are heading to Luanda

Luanda, Angola's Capital to host AFIS 2026.

For its first four years, the architects of African finance gathered where the money was already comfortable.

They met in the established hubs of West Africa and the glittering corporate backdrops of the North. But this November, the Africa Financial Summit (AFIS) and its caravan of 1,250 policymakers, central bankers, investors and fintech disruptors are charting a new path. They are heading south to Luanda, Angola’s capital.

According to AFIS Deputy CEO, the choice is neither accidental nor merely geographical. It reflects Africa's search for a financial system capable of funding its own ambitions.

"Angola sits at the heart of a rapidly transforming region. The country has made substantial strides in modernising its banking sector and diversifying its economy beyond oil under the Angola Vision 2050 framework," says Maury.

For AFIS, Luanda represents more than a host city. It is a signal of where opportunity is emerging.

Projects such as the Lobito Corridor, a $1.2 billion transport network linking Angola, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, illustrate the type of cross-border investment increasingly shaping Africa's economic future.

The move also reflects AFIS's own evolution. After establishing itself in West and North Africa, the summit is expanding its footprint into Southern Africa while deepening engagement with Lusophone and Anglophone markets alike.

Yet the significance of Luanda extends beyond geography. The city serves as a fitting backdrop for a conversation increasingly dominating boardrooms, ministries and central banks across the continent: how to build a more integrated African financial system.

For ordinary Africans, that phrase can sound abstract. In reality, its impact is deeply practical.

"For small businesses, financial integration means an entrepreneur in Dar es Salaam can trade with clients in neighbouring countries without excessive friction, currency barriers or prohibitive costs," Maury explains.

That remains far from today's reality.

Cross-border payments across Africa are still among the most expensive in the world. Remittance costs average about 8 per cent, while businesses frequently encounter regulatory hurdles, foreign exchange restrictions and fragmented payment systems.

The consequences are felt most acutely by those already underserved by formal finance. More than 70 per cent of African workers operate in the informal economy, while millions remain outside traditional banking systems. Agriculture, despite employing a large share of the continent's workforce, receives only a small fraction of commercial lending.

"AFIS brings together the full financial ecosystem precisely to close these gaps. We want to ensure that financial services serve the real economy, including the SMEs that today struggle to access financing," he says.

However, there are reasons for optimism.

Across the continent, the architecture of integration is slowly taking shape. The African Continental Free Trade Area has created a framework for deeper economic cooperation.

Pan-African banks continue expanding across borders. The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System is steadily onboarding financial institutions, while domestic capital is playing an increasingly important role in climate finance and trade finance.

"There are encouraging signs across several fronts," says Maury. "The direction is right." But he is quick to add a caveat.

"The speed needs to accelerate."

The urgency stems from the scale of the obstacles that remain. Africa's financial landscape is still fragmented across 54 jurisdictions, each with its own regulatory requirements and compliance standards. For fintech companies seeking continental scale, expansion can be prohibitively expensive.

Access to long-term capital remains another challenge. Infrastructure financing needs continue to far exceed available funding, while pension funds and institutional investors often allocate only a small share of their assets to productive investments within African markets.

"The sovereign credit-rating system is another major barrier," Maury argues. "African institutions and global rating agencies remain at a deadlock over how African risk is measured, artificially raising borrowing costs across the continent."

The discussion therefore moves beyond integration toward something even more ambitious: financial sovereignty.

For decades, Africa's growth story has depended heavily on external capital. Yet the continent is not short of financial resources.

Pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and insurance companies collectively manage more than a trillion dollars in assets. The challenge is that much of that money remains invested outside Africa or concentrated in short-term government securities.

"Around $1.1 trillion in institutional investor capital is held by African pension funds, insurance companies and sovereign funds," says Maury. "Yet most of it is allocated to short-term government debt or invested outside Africa altogether."

At the same time, Africa loses an estimated $100 billion annually through illicit financial flows.

For AFIS, addressing this imbalance means mobilising domestic capital at an unprecedented scale.

"External financing dependence reflects deep structural realities," he says. "But if Africa wants to stand on its own feet, African financial institutions must invest locally."

Still, Maury acknowledges that the broader goal of African financial sovereignty will not be achieved overnight.

"It is a meaningful long-term goal, but one that requires an honest assessment of where Africa stands today."

The building blocks, however, are increasingly visible: growing pan-African banks, expanding fintech ecosystems, the AfCFTA framework and rising intra-African investment flows.

The African Development Bank's push for a New African Financial Architecture for Development, alongside the planned launch of the Africa Credit Rating Agency, reflects a broader effort to strengthen the continent's financial autonomy and reshape perceptions of African risk.

"Financial sovereignty is ultimately a generational project," says Maury. "A summit like AFIS is part of how the industry moves it forward, by building the networks, the trust and the shared standards that make it possible."

Seen through that lens, Luanda is more than the venue for another financial conference. It is a symbol of a continent attempting to finance its future on its own terms.

The journey towards financial sovereignty may still be long, but for two days in November, many of the people shaping that future will gather in Angola's capital to discuss how to bring it closer.