The Second Strategic Leaders’ Summit organised by Human Capital International was held on the 27 of February 2020 at Sheraton Hotel.

The Summit had as its main objective of connecting Uganda’s most influential and key business leaders, high-level SME operators, Investors, Bankers and Policy Makers on the same platform to address key issues to do with Digital Innovation and Corporate Governance for SMEs Growth in the New Market frontier. To achieve this objective, two key implementation strategies were used; four thematic workshops and an inter-sectorial round table discussion.

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The four thematic workshops looked at SMEs Growth and Digital Innovation, Relevance of Corporate Governance in SMEs growth in the Emerging Markets, The Future of Women (CEO) in Corporate Leadership, and Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) as a Link for SMEs in Emerging and Developed Markets for economic development.

At the high-level, Inter-Sectoral Policy Dialogue participants focused their attention on the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCTA) and its implications on both domestic revenue generation and SMEs Growth in the New Market frontier.

The goal of the round table Policy Dialogue was to facilitate open discussions among stakeholders and generate practical recommendations that will have a real impact on policy drafting and implementation to push the growth and expansion of Uganda’s SMEs agenda, particularly as the implementation of AfCTA kicks off this July.

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Among the key issues that participants agreed on as the major takeaways from the Summit included the following:

• That Africa for a very long time has been cheated and denied fair rewards from globalized trade and steps must be taken to demand for a fair playing field.
• Bold and immediate steps must be taken to build capacity, particularly for SMEs, to counter any activities by Africa’s trading partners that are targeted at reducing African SMEs’ capacity to compete as equal players in the global market.
• That AfCTA provides the continent with a unique opportunity to reposition herself strategically to optimise the continent’s massive potentials and opportunities for equal economic and trading rights in the struggle for Foreign Direct Investments.
• The need for and importance of intra-continental trade and why African countries should embrace technology was underscored. The private sector, particularly SMEs, were encouraged to identify the emerging opportunities and exploit them accordingly.
• SMEs should ensure that they are compliant with the various regulations and register for taxation and religiously ensure proper bookkeeping, value addition, production of quality goods and service to give SMEs a competitive advantage.
• African Governments should focus on building the technology infrastructure to support the growth of tech-driven SMEs to create more jobs.

The organisers hope that governments, policymakers, and all SMEs will ensure that we pursue an all African development agenda to enable the AfCTA to achieve its laudable purpose to create jobs and develop the middle class to distribute wealth in Africa.

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Finally, Human Capital International is extremely grateful to Ecobank, the title sponsor of the Summit for the second in a row, Capital FM, NBS, EABW Digital, Capital Outdoor, Sheraton Kampala hotel, Rwandair, Event warehouse, emages, safeboda, presenters, facilitators and all participants who turned up for the Summit. We urge you to use the knowledge gained in the Summit to grow African SMEs.