“Africa’s unspoken opportunity is not a sector, a country or a commodity.It is the chance to finance the systems that let African businesses trade,manufacture,move goods,generate power and reach customers,”Gachora said.
Gachora opened with the scale of capital already flowing into the continent. Foreign direct investment reached $70 billion in 2025, the third-highest year in 25 years and roughly a third above the 2010–24 average.
Private capital fundraising for Africa more than doubled to $5.1 billion, venture funding held at $3.9 billion across 506 deals, and diaspora remittances are on track to cross $100 billion, nearly double their 2010 level.
Mobile money moved $1.1 trillion across 81 billion transactions in 2024, with East Africa alone accounting for $649 billion of that value.
“The buyer of Africa risk has diversified,” Gachora said, pointing to African-based investors, who make up 30% of active venture capital participants, alongside domestic pension funds and development finance institutions.”
He cited a deepening wave of regional consolidation as evidence that African and Gulf institutions, rather than global banks, are building the continent’s intermediation layer:
East Africa,Gachora added,is proving the model:the region attracted $14.6 billion of FDI in 2025, up 12%.“Look at where the institutional signals point.Japan’s number one African destination,two years running.
On trade specifically, he noted, only 23% of Africa’s cross-border trade was intermediated by financial services institutions between 2020 and 2024, even as the intra-African share of that trade climbed 89% above pre-pandemic levels.
“Global capital speaks dollars and decades.African demand speaks shillings and months. Banks sit between the two,” Gachora said.
From Left, NCBA Group Director Finance, David Abwoga, NCBA Group Director, Regional Business & Strategy Luoisa Wadabwa,NCBA Group Director, NCBA Group Managing Director John Gachora, and NCBA Global Markets & Chief Economist Raphael Agung
“Africa does not need to choose between development and commercial capital.The winning model blends them — and blending is done on a bank’s balance sheet,”he said.
NCBA Group Managing Director John Gachora during a plenary session with Julian Amboko at the Bullish Africa Summit,held on the sidelines of UNGA
“We are not competing for the ten-billion-dollar project. We are structuring the ten-million-dollar SME deals that make it economically viable — a much bigger prize,” he said.
The product provides up to KES 100,000 in zero-security, short-tenure capital at a highly concessionary 9% interest rate to help early-stage creators comfortably scale their passions into resilient corporate enterprises.”
NCBA Group Managing Director,John Gachora
LOOKING AHEAD
Closing his address,Gachora set out what he is asking of global capital: to bring more than money;long-term capital, guarantees, co-investment,risk-sharing, sector expertise and technology;
“Invest in Africa by investing in the intermediation layer,the banks, managers and platforms that turn commitments into local outcomes”he said.
Business Desk 
Gachora opened with the scale of capital already flowing into the continent. Foreign direct investment reached $70 billion in 2025, the third-highest year in 25 years and roughly a third above the 2010–24 average.
Mobile money moved $1.1 trillion across 81 billion transactions in 2024, with East Africa alone accounting for $649 billion of that value.
He cited a deepening wave of regional consolidation as evidence that African and Gulf institutions, rather than global banks, are building the continent’s intermediation layer:
East Africa,Gachora added,is proving the model:the region attracted $14.6 billion of FDI in 2025, up 12%.“Look at where the institutional signals point.Japan’s number one African destination,two years running.
SUSTAINABLE FINANCE
“Africa does not need to choose between development and commercial capital.The winning model blends them — and blending is done on a bank’s balance sheet,” he said.
SME FINANCING
CREATIVE ECONOMY
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