Mnangagwa takes COMESA chair as Ruto urges Africa to fund itself
At the Harare summit, Kenya's president said Africa holds more than $4 trillion in domestic financial assets and should put more of it to work at home.
Harare — Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa is the new chair of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), taking over from Kenya's William Ruto at the bloc's 25th summit at the New Parliament Building in Harare, Capital FM reports via AllAfrica.
"Invest with us, process with us, build with us"
Ruto used his farewell speech to argue that Africa should finance more of its own development through its own institutions. He said the continent holds more than $4 trillion in domestic financial assets, much of it in accounts abroad, and urged governments to keep more reserves in African institutions, route projects through them and back their bonds and guarantees.
- Kenya has raised its shareholding in Afreximbank, the Africa Finance Corporation and ATIDI.
- A planned $16 billion East Africa refinery in Kenya is expected to be funded almost entirely by African financial institutions.
- He asked the COMESA Secretariat to fast-track the COMESA Market Levy for predictable funding.
His message to outside partners: invest, process and build with Africa, not simply extract.
The road ahead
The summit launched the COMESA 2026–2030 Medium-Term Strategic Plan and the 2025 annual report, which calls for faster intra-African trade, fewer non-tariff barriers and better connections. Mnangagwa praised Kenya's focus on digitalising regional value chains and called for practical steps to make the region more resilient to global shocks. Zambia's President Hakainde Hichilema said Africans must drive their own development, because nobody else will.
AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene and COMESA Secretary-General Chileshe Mpundu Kapwepwe also attended.
Source: Capital FM via AllAfrica, 23 October 2026.
