Intra-African settlement
How can regional trade be settled more directly, predictably and efficiently?
01
Africa Trade & Financial Connectivity Dialogue
Africa trades with the world. It should be easier for Africa to trade with itself.
A private conversation among African leaders and financial decision-makers about trade, payments, correspondent banking and the corridors connecting Africa with the Gulf and Asia.
The premise
Africa does not have a shortage of trade conferences.
It has a shortage of rooms in which the people able to change the system are free to speak candidly.
No public audience. No panels performing for an audience. The people attending are the meeting.
Africa · GCC · Asia
The practical irritation
Money sometimes travels further than the goods.
A transaction between two African businesses can still depend on foreign currencies, distant correspondent banks and infrastructure outside the continent. There are historical reasons for this. There is no obligation to regard them as permanent.
ATFCD 2026
Four questions worth putting in the same room.
Correspondent banking
How can African banks preserve and broaden access as global relationships concentrate?
02
Africa–GCC–Asia corridors
Which financial rails would make commodity and trade flows easier to originate, settle and finance?
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Trade and commodity finance
How can financing capacity follow real trade rather than arrive after the opportunity has passed?
04
Around one table
The people who normally meet on stages will meet without one.
Heads of State
Heads of Government
Finance Ministers
Central Bank Governors
Sovereign & Development Institutions
Selected Financial Leaders
A useful rule for an unusually frank room
Use the information. Do not identify the person who supplied it.
The Dialogue will operate under the Chatham House Rule. Participants may use the ideas and information received, but may not reveal the identity or affiliation of any speaker or participant.
How the Rule will applyFrom conversation to infrastructure
Talking about financial connectivity is useful. Building some would be better.
Canopus Bank is a banking project under development in Seychelles, designed around cross-border trade, payments and financial connectivity between Africa, the GCC and Asia. Selected African States and institutions may later be invited to explore minority participation, subject to licensing, law, due diligence and all necessary approvals.
Canopus Bank is not licensed and is not presently providing banking services or accepting deposits.
Abu Dhabi · October 2026
Abu Dhabi · October 2026
A meeting point between three commercial geographies.
The Dialogue is planned for Abu Dhabi in October 2026, in a closed-door format. The proposed venue is Beach Rotana, with final dates and arrangements confirmed directly with invited participants.
Practical arrangementsAfrica Trade & Financial Connectivity Dialogue
The first commitment is simply to understand the proposition.
Senior public and institutional decision-makers may request the confidential briefing from the Secretariat.
Request the briefing