At Monday’s Jerusalem Post Conference held in New York, Haim Taib, President of the Conference, together with leading African financial officials, presented a compelling vision for Africa’s next phase of economic development — highlighting the continent’s growing role in global transformation and introducing the new $1 billion Lobito Corridor Impact Development (LCID) Platform initiative.
“This initiative aims to accelerate industrial and human development, fostering joint investments between Africa and the U.S.,” said Taib, Founder and President of Menomadin and Mitrelli Group.
The panel, moderated by Jerusalem Post Editor-in-Chief Zvika Klein, featured Mr. Muyangwa Muyangwa, Director General of Zambia’s National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA), and Dr. Armando Manuel, Chairman of Angola’s Sovereign Wealth Fund. Together, they discussed the role of sovereign wealth and pension funds in shaping Africa’s economic future and advancing cooperation between Africa, the United States, and Israel.
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Taib, who has led infrastructure, health, and education projects in Africa for decades, emphasized the continent’s global significance. By 2050, Africa will be home to 2.8 billion people, with 40% of the world’s children growing up there by 2040.
The LCID Platform, created in partnership with the Angola Sovereign Wealth Fund, is a private initiative designed to support sustainable and inclusive development across Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Zambia. “The platform represents a new approach to regional development based on cross-border cooperation and private-public partnerships,” Taib explained. “We are initiating bold investments in agriculture, food industries, energy, medicine, and education — the sectors that define long-term stability and sovereignty.”
Muyangwa highlighted the growing role of African institutional investors in closing financing gaps. “There is a wider recognition by financing entities on the continent that the gaps in development financing must be filled by African sovereign wealth and pension funds,” he said.
“What I learned from the 34 years that I have been living, working, and investing in Africa,” Taib told the panel, “is that it’s about people. We have to see the people, and we must see their needs. I have had the privilege to lead over 100 infrastructure projects in Africa, including in Angola, Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Mozambique, in water, housing, energy, hospitals, education, and technology.”
In the panel discussion, Muyangwa, whose National Pension Scheme Authority is the largest pension fund in Zambia, told Klein that the fund has been seeking foreign capital to partner with it to address financing gaps. Manuel added that sovereign wealth funds are playing an increasingly important role. “We see fundamental shifts in the global economic order,” he shared. “Sovereign wealth funds are no longer holders of capital that play in a passive manner, they have a unique opportunity to deploy capitalism that is profitable but is inclusive and sustainable.”
Taib said that the LCID Platform invites institutional investors, sovereign partners, and private investors to join the mission, by contributing capital, capabilities, and credibility, adding that it presents a strategic opportunity for shared growth for Africa, for Israel, and for the world. “Israel has a role to play in that future,” said Taib, “to link future to purpose. In moments like these, purpose must be grounded in hope.”
Written in collaboration with Menomadin and Mitrelli Groups