The Oxford University Africa Society, organiser of the annual Oxford Africa Conference (OAC), has mustered a wide array of distinguished speakers for this year’s edition of the conference scheduled for May 28-30, 2021.
The Oxford Africa Conference, a yearly intellectual gathering, brings together former and serving heads of state, policymakers, business leaders, seasoned academics, opinion leaders, artists, students and distinguished professionals of African descent.
Over the years, the conference has become a forum for critical evaluation and deliberation on Africa’s past, present and future, with the unchanging goal of charting a way forward for Africa.
This year’s conference, themed ‘Rewriting Our Story and Asserting Africa’s Future’, has among its distinguished speakers Nigeria’s former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, BUA Group Chairman Abdul Samad Rabiu, and Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai.
Also to speak at the conference are Tedros Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, Audu Ogbeh, a former minister of agriculture, Toyin Saraki, founder/president, Wellbeing Foundation Africa, Rabiu Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State, Seyi Tinubu, digital strategist and youth leader, the CEO of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, among others.
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The conference, according to a statement by Chibugo (Chi) Okafor, an MBA candidate at Oxford University and co-chair of this year’s conference, will feature practical and solution-oriented conversations centred on Africa’s development from an economic, political, environmental, security and health perspective, with emphasis on the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Due to the current global pandemic, this will be the first virtual Oxford Africa Conference. This will open up the access to everyone that wishes to participate regardless of where they are in the world, which has not been the case in recent years where we typically have closed our doors to the wider public,” Okafor said.
Daniel Ogoloma, an Oxford University student and communications manager for the Oxford Africa Conference, said the aim is to use the conference as a platform “to uplift, mobilise and propel Africans in the diaspora and on the continent”.
“We want attendees to leave inspired enough to change the African story by implementing key strategies from the insightful reflections and discussions that stand to be held at the Conference,” he said.
