For institutional investors navigating emerging markets, cross-border execution remains a complex undertaking. At the fourth edition of Africa Breakfast Convos (ABC 2026), convened on Friday, September 25, 2026, at the World Trade Center in New York, Otunba (Dr.) Bimbola Ashiru offered a masterclass in converting regional policy frameworks into sustainable corporate earnings. Against the backdrop of the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA81), the financial strategist outlined how institutional managers can harness the commercial momentum of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to scale indigenous enterprises into regional conglomerates.
With double-digit inflation and currency fluctuations pressing African businesses over recent years, institutional investors are seeking resilient business models. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) highlights that foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to Africa require targeted, value-added manufacturing and tech-enabled supply chains to build lasting resilience against external shocks.
Drawing from his hands-on leadership at Blackcod Asset Management Group and the historic Odu’a Investment Company Limited, Ashiru presented a pragmatic framework for institutional dealmaking. “Capital is inherently cowardly. It flees friction and seeks certainty,” Ashiru remarked during the panel. “Our task as asset managers is not to deny the complexity of cross-border African commerce, but to engineer structures that navigate it. Whether through supply-chain finance, regional equity plays, or strategic joint ventures, we must build corporate vehicles capable of operating seamlessly across borders.”
Highlighting the scale of opportunity within the continent’s manufacturing and logistics ecosystems, Ashiru argued that value retention within local supply chains is the single greatest multiplier for sustained job creation and revenue generation. “Exporting raw commodities without local processing is an outdated strategy,” Ashiru asserted. “Under AfCFTA, the rules of origin incentivise local value addition. When an African enterprise expands its footprint from one country to five, its valuation multiple should reflect access to a 1.3-billion-person market, not just its domestic footprint.”
At ABC 2026, Otunba (Dr.) Bimbola Ashiru shared the pannel with Hackim Abdul Director of Citi’s Public Sector Group for Africa, and Yasamin Alttahir, Director of Global Marketing, Communications and External Affairs at The King’s Trust International. The forum, hosted by BHM and Allison Worldwide, comes as Ghana posts a GH¢46.1 billion trade surplus and Kenya records 5.3 percent GDP growth in the first quarter of 2026.