Geopolitical and economic outlooks for Africa and the Middle East region in 2026/7 are examined in this session, analysing key macroeconomic indicators for five key economies: South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, and Kenya, and the UAE, forecasting projected GDP growth rates as well as forecasts for interest rates and inflation. Analysis will contextualize economic trends in specific economies within the regional economic environment, including the impact of conflicts, evolving trade tariffs on African economies, evolving trade flows and commodity markets, oil prices, foreign and domestic investment, and progress regional trade integration.  The session will consider the development of central bank policy, hard currency reserves and de-dollarisation, the influence of China, the end of USAID, the development of AfFTA and other key factors influencing the economic environment for corporates and financial institutions in the region.

With the World bank projecting 4.3 percent growth in sub-Saharan Africa and 3.7 percent in the Middle East and North Africa, the region will experience an acceleration in economic investment, despite ongoing instability in markets. In this session, the panel will outline the factors that will shape the economic, political and corporate activities in the region in the year ahead. A panel of leading African economists will then discuss the evolving political and economic environments across Africa, highlighting factors impacting multinational companies and treasury in the region, including central bank policy interventions, financial regulation, US tariffs and the weakening dollar. At a country level, the panel will flag challenges in currency, commodities and liquidity markets impacting corporate growth and treasury operations, in the context of specific markets and countries in the region.

Priorities in regional treasury management are different in every organisation yet many companies face common challenges across cash and liquidity management, risk, compliance and operations. In a multi-country environment, with constantly shifting regulations around cash operations, hard currency liquidity, banking operations and tax regimes, treasurers have many priorities to navigate. In this session treasurers discuss their priorities in optimising cash operations, their solutions and workarounds in some of the more challenging jurisdictions, and how they work to optimise treasury processes through the maze of regional compliance. Intercompany netting, cash pooling and inhouse banking operations for subsidiaries in the region are also in focus for treasurers looking to optimise efficiency gains in cash management operations. We focus also on the people, systems and technologies, including AI, in local treasury that enable regional operations to function optimally and reduce risk in cash and liquidity management.

1. Finance and liquidity: financing in international and local loan and bond markets in the current rate environment. Working with both international and local banking partners to support local currency operations
2. Cash management: cash forecasting and strategies for managing trapped cash in the region. intercompany lending, netting and pooling to support working capital for intergroup trading and local business operations
3. Treasury technology and AI: evaluating the adoption of TMS and API technologies for treasury in the region and the application of new AI technologies
4. Payments: embedding effective automated payment processing operations to manage in-country and cross border payables and receivables, and the potential impacts of stablecoins, crypto, digital currency and CBDCs on treasury
5. FX management: navigating foreign exchange volatility and fx hedging strategies and automating FX processes
6. Trade, Tariffs and SCF: managing supply chain financing and trade finance in the region in the era of tariff uncertainty and volatility in markets
7. Hedging and derivatives: Managing inflationary pressures and risks, and developing hedging strategies for commodities and energy markets
8. Cash investments: identifying strategies for capital preservation and yield in money market funds and investments
9. Sustainable finance and ESG: embedding esg in regional treasury operations and developing sustainable finance solutions
10. Teams and Operations: centralising treasury from devolved and decentralised operations plus and managing shared service centres for operational efficiencies. building teams and hiring talent in regional treasury

African currencies present a mixed outlook with many depreciating against the dollar, with others appreciating, driven by economic and geopolitical factors weighing on specific countries, commodities and currencies. Against this backdrop, foreign exchange and currency hedging operations in Africa can be a complex challenge for treasurers of multinational companies, due currency convertibility issues, whilst the lack of availability of hard currency in some markets can make dollar liquidity and supplier payments challenging. In hedging, commodities markets and oil prices are forecast to decline through 2026, yet conflicts, tariffs, and geopolitical uncertainty have created potential inflationary forces and price unpredictability.  In this session treasurers discuss their FX strategies in the region, and the operational structures and technologies that deliver solutions to common FX management and hedging challenges across local business operations.

Africa has made great progress in payments infrastructure, notably the Pan African payments and settlements system (PAPPs), together with a host of innovate payments service providers (PSPs), together with SWIFT gsi, that combine to make internal and cross border payments and settlements straightforward, in theory of not always in practice. For the treasurer paying African entities and receiving payments, often transactions require interventions, such as wet signing and manual processing that can create delays in cash conversion cycles, impacting working capital positions in the business. With new tariffs in markets creating greater uncertainty and complexity, the need for clarity and certainty of payment operations becomes greater. In this session treasurers discuss their practices and solutions to challenges in payments and receivables, focussing on technology and automation, in areas including AP/AR and supplier and trade finance, to ensure smooth operations and working capital efficiency.  

Transformation in treasury is accelerating in the era of artificial intelligence, as solution providers upgrade software with new AI powered capabilities in systems from cash and liquidity management, to payments and fraud, to compliance, risk and hedging. In parallel, financial infrastructure is evolving with the wider adoption of digital currencies and stablecoins. Stabelecoin issuance currently is at $280 billion globally, with $4 trillion issuance projected by 2030. The potentail use case for cross border transfers could result significant USDSC emerging market outlflows by the end of the decade. In this session we discuss how new financial technologies are changing the direction of treasury transformation in the region.

Delegates join group discussions and share experiences on operational challenges in treasury in specific regions:

• West Africa

• Nigeria

• East Africa

• Southern Africa

• Central Africa

• North Africa

• Middle East