Over twenty African leaders are participating in seventh edition of the Tokyo International Conference for African Development (TICAD) summit, which kicked off today (August 28) in Japan.
Over twenty African presidents in Japan as 7th TICAD opens [LIST]
TICAD has been held in Japan except for TICADVI which was held in Africa. TICAD7 is taking place in Yokohama, Japan. It starts today and will end on Friday 30 August 2019.
African leaders in Japan include:
Faustin Archange Touadera, Central African Republic
Azali Assoumani, Comoros
Danny Faure, Seychelles
Alpha Conde, Guinea
Patrice Talon, Benin
Julius Maada Bio, Sierra Leone
Andry Rajoelina, Madagascar
Ismail Omar Guelleh, Djibouti
Joao Lourenco, Angola
Hage Geingob, Namibia
George Weah, Liberia
Felix Tshisekedi, Democratic Republic of Congo
Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya
Yoweri Museveni, Uganda
Abdul Fatten Al-Sisi, Egypt and current African Union president
Paul Kagame, Rwanda
Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, Somalia
Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe
Faure Gnassingbe, Togo
Mahamadou Issoufou, Niger
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Ghana
Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria
Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa
Ibrahim Boubakar Keita, Mali
Edgar Lungu, Zambia
Macky Sall, Senegal
Leaders of delegation that aren’t presidents include:
Thomas Thabane, Lesotho Prime Minister
Everton Herbert Chimulirenji, Malawi Vice-President
Isatou Touray, Gambian Vice-President
Amadou Gon Coulibaly, Prime Minister of Ivory Coast
Osman Saleh, Foreign Minister if Eritrea
Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopian Prime Minister
On Tuesday, August 27, the TICAD7 Ministerial Preparatory Meeting was held in Yokohama, and Mr. Taro Kono, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, attended the meeting as a Co-chair and rallied for support to achieve a successful summit.
In response, the Co-chair, Sameh Shoukry, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt stated an intention to strengthen partnerships and to aim to achieve AU Agenda 2063 and SDGs through the TICAD7 process, under the theme of TICAD7, “Advancing Africa’s Development through People, Technology and Innovation”.
Thereafter, through the discussion among the ministerial-level participants, they affirmed the contents of ‘Yokohama Declaration 2019’ and ‘Yokohama Plan of Action 2019’, and the two documents will be presented to the leaders to be adopted at the TICAD7 Summit.
In this meeting, the measures expressed during the TICAD process over the past three years were also presented through the ‘TICAD VI Report 2016-2018’.
The government of Japan leads the conference with co-hosts such as the United Nations, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Bank and African Union Commission (AUC).
TICAD is a summit-level international conference regarding development of Africa launched by Japan in 1993. TICAD was held every 5 years until TICADV (2013).
The hosting period was shortened to 3 years since TICAD VI (2016), during which it was held for the first time in Africa (Kenya, Nairobi).
Aside the main deliberations by presidents, heads of state and government representatives, there are a number of side events slated for countries to engage in bilateral talks with the host nation and among themselves.
During TICAD 6, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, disclosed that Africa will benefit from a $30 billion investment package by 2018 including a $10 billion investment in infrastructural development.
“When combined with the investment from the private sector, I expect the total real amount to be $30 billion. This is an investment that has faith in Africa’s future,” he said at the time.