Africa-Press – Uganda. The hills of Rwashamaire in Ntungamo have turned into a hive of economic optimism as the Africa Business and Investment Forum 2025 kicked off today at the Africa Coffee Park, drawing over 1,000 business leaders, policymakers and investors from across the continent.
Held under the theme “Innovation, Industrialisation and Value Addition for Africa’s Renaissance”, the high-profile gathering is championing Uganda’s bold move to transform coffee from a raw export into a gold-standard symbol of African value addition.
Spearheaded by Inspire Africa Group in partnership with the Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, the forum is both a celebration and a declaration of intent.
The Africa Coffee Value Addition Project aims to increase Uganda’s coffee revenue from the current $1.2 billion to $5 billion over five years—$4 billion of it from value-added products and another $1 billion from coffee tourism.
The ambitious initiative is anchored in the AU Agenda 2063 and Uganda’s Fourth National Development Plan (NDPIV), which identifies coffee as one of six key agricultural value chains to drive export growth, employment creation and a transition from subsistence to a monetised economy.
President Museveni and his Kenyan counterpart William Ruto were expected to headline the event alongside a powerful lineup of speakers.
The two leaders were however unable to attend.
Dr James Mwangi, Group CEO of Equity Group Holdings, delivered the keynote address titled “Bottlenecks to Africa’s Innovation, Industrialisation and Value Addition Journey.”
Equity Bank’s Claver Serumaga summed up the forum’s energy with conviction: “Africa’s Renaissance won’t be imported. It’ll be built, owned, and led by Africans—innovating, industrialising, and adding value every step of the way.”
Serumaga, representing a financial institution widely lauded for opening banking access across East Africa, added, “Innovation is at the heart of everything we do at Equity Bank and Group. We have opened doors of formal banking across this region who were previously excluded.”
It’s a message that resonated through the sprawling 150-acre Africa Coffee Park, a site that doesn’t just house East and Central Africa’s largest coffee processing plant, but also boasts a sports complex, a 1,000-seater convention centre, a coffee academy, an exhibition centre, and an IT park dedicated to Artificial Intelligence.
This, according to Inspire Africa founder Nelson Tugume, is just the beginning.
“Inspire Africa Coffee aims at creating a young generation of African entrepreneurs with a patriotic, progressive and visionary outlook to business success through practical business incubations and investments,” Tugume said, outlining the bold philosophy behind the coffee-led industrial push.
“We shall advance the ideals of youths’ empowerment of putting innovation and creativity to work through advancing entrepreneurial skills development, and promoting agribusiness,” he added, linking the initiative to a broader vision of economic transformation rooted in African ingenuity.
Bebe Cool, one of Uganda’s biggest music stars, made headlines with his arrival alongside his wife Zuena.
But the man known for rhythms and rhyme is now singing the gospel of coffee-driven transformation.
“He’s not just here as a music legend,” tweeted Claude Muhigirwa, “but as a fierce believer in Africa’s rise through coffee!”
Bebe Cool joins a growing chorus of public figures supporting the Inspire Africa vision, which has quickly become a magnet for innovation-hungry investors.
The Coffee Park’s freeze-dry technology, designed to produce instant coffee, energy drinks, and even coffee-based cosmetics, represents the kind of industrial leap that the forum’s planners say is long overdue on the continent.
“From the roots of our soil to the cups of the world,” said one speaker, “this is more than coffee. It’s a movement.”
With entrepreneurs, CEOs, central bank officials, and youth innovators mingling among rows of display booths and coffee tastings, the Forum has become a platform not only to discuss policy but to witness a model in motion.
Among the key topics of the day is the role of central banks in financing industrialisation, to be addressed by Deputy Governor of the Bank of Uganda, Prof. Augustus Nuwagaba.
Inspire Africa’s partnership with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and the National Planning Authority underlines government commitment.
As the press statement put it, “The Forum is also aligned to the Third Objective of NDPIV—‘to support the private sector to drive growth and create jobs.’”
What makes this year’s gathering especially poignant is the realisation that Africa’s story, often told through deficit and dependency, is finally being rewritten with its own pen.
“AfricanRenaissance will not come from outside,” said Serumaga. “It will be built, owned and led by Africans just like Nelson Tugume, innovating, industrialising and adding value every step of the way.”
Whether the Africa Coffee Park delivers on its grand promise remains to be seen. But on this Friday in Ntungamo, the aroma of possibility is unmistakable.
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