Growing Global 2025 Focuses on Importance of Africa for St. Louis
World Trade Center St. Louis event examined the investment, trade opportunities of Africa
World Trade Center St. Louis (WTC), the international division of St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, hosted its annual Growing Global luncheon on September 24 with the event focusing on Africa as an up-and-coming trade and investment partner for St. Louis. The theme for the event, which was held at the Ritz-Carlton in Clayton, was Africa Rising: Navigating Markets, Investments and Trade.
Speakers at the event included Arthur Asiimwe, deputy chief of mission for the Embassy of the Republic of Rwanda to the U.S., Elzandi Oosthuizen, senior vice president of the Head Enterprise Corn Product Team at Bayer Crop Science Division and Fred Swaniker, founder and CEO of Sand Technologies.
“America looks at Africa as a source of demand, but you should also look at Africa as a source of supply,” Swaniker said during the panel discussion. “One source is talent, and the second source is innovation. When you go to Africa, it opens your eyes to the innovation that is there.”
Africa, where the population is projected to nearly double to 2.5 billion people by 2050, is home to a young and entrepreneurial workforce poised to increase prosperity on the continent and around the world. Because of this, St. Louis views Africa as a future vibrant trading partner.
“When you ‘Google’ the top growing economies in the world, within the top 10, five are African countries,” Asiimwe stated at the event. “Business and investors want to invest in the African continent.”
East Africa is predicted to be the fastest-growing economic region globally over the next two decades. According to a 2023 report from Euromonitor, East Africa is expected to deliver a Gross Domestic Product Compound Annual Growth Rate from 2022 through 2040 of 6.1 percent, outperforming the Southeast Asia and Latin American markets.
“By 2050, one in four people on earth will be African,” said Tim Nowak, executive director of WTC, at Growing Global. “The continent is urbanizing, digitizing and innovating at an extraordinary pace. For St. Louis businesses, investors, educators and community leaders, Africa is not a distant frontier—it is a present opportunity.”
To continue the momentum of this budding relationship between St. Louis and Africa, WTC will be hosting a trade mission to Kenya and Rwanda in 2026.
“You have to go visit Africa because three things will happen to you,” Oosthuizen declared at the event. “When your feet touch the soil, you will never think the same way about the human population, you’ll never think the same way about your business and you will fall in love with Africa.”