Cape City, South Africa –
Rugby Africa (www.RugbyAfrique.com), Africa’s governing physique for rugby, right now introduced that its Chairman, Herbert Mensah, has been invited by Professor George Elombi, President and Chairman of the Board of the African Export-Import Financial institution (Afreximbank), to attend the thirty third Annual Common Assembly of Afreximbank (https://2026.afreximbankevents.com), to be held from 21 to 21. Held on June 24, 2026 in El Alamein, Egypt, below the patronage of His Excellency Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt.
Mr. Mensah might be talking on the high-level panel “From Africa’s Manufacturing unit to Pitch: Sport as a Conduit to Africa’s Industrialization” scheduled for June 22, 2026. This session will discover how the continent’s burgeoning sports activities and inventive industries can anchor a broader industrial base, transferring Africa past reliance on imported equipment, boots and balls, in direction of creating capabilities throughout the broader sports activities worth chain, together with stadium expertise, broadcast gear, health merchandise and sports activities medication. provides.
This 12 months’s Annual Assembly, themed “Intra-African Commerce and Industrialization: The Path to Financial Sovereignty,” will convey collectively Afreximbank’s shareholders, African and Caribbean heads of state and authorities officers, ministers, central financial institution governors, leaders of main monetary establishments, companies, and members of the tutorial group.
This invitation acknowledges the worldwide scope of the chance. The worldwide sports activities attire trade is presently estimated at $230 billion and is projected to succeed in $325 billion by 2034, whereas the African market, valued at roughly $30 billion, stays closely depending on imports. The panel will contemplate how the continent can seize a major share of this rising worth by home manufacturing and world partnerships.
“We’re honored to simply accept President Elombi’s invitation. Sport is one among Africa’s strongest and most undervalued financial property,” stated Rugby Africa Chairman Herbert Mensah. “Each jersey, each ball, each stadium represents the roles, abilities and trade that may and ought to be constructed on this continent. Rugby is rising sooner in Africa than virtually anyplace else on the earth, and that progress ought to result in factories, worth chains and alternatives for African folks. I stay up for delivering that message to El Alamein.”
As Chairman of Rugby Africa, Mr Mensah additionally serves on the Board of Administrators of World Rugby and Chairman of the World Rugby Area. The group brings collectively the presidents of rugby unions on all six continents: European Rugby, Asia Rugby, Rugby Americas North (RAN), Sudamerica Rugby, Oceania Rugby and Rugby Africa. His addition brings a world rugby perspective to conversations centered round the way forward for Africa’s trade.
Rugby Africa welcomes Afreximbank’s continued management in selling intra-African commerce and industrialization and appears ahead to contributing to discussions that place sport firmly throughout the continent’s financial sovereignty agenda.
