Africa mindset Reset Forum - Reported by RDjarbeng
Africa Mindset Reset Forum: A Live Log
Reporting from the Africa Mindset Reset Forum. This post will serve as my log of events as they happen.
Since yesterday, August 25th, Iāve been at the Africa Mindset Reset Forum, hosted by the African School of Governance. The event is taking place at the Kigali Convention Centre in Rwanda, East Africa, with over 22 countries represented.
Day One Discussions ā August 25
A series of questions came up in the discussions on the first day, including:
- Where did we come from, how did we get here, and where are we going as a continent?
Day 1 Summary
Francis Gatare, President of the African School of Governance, opened the forum by framing it as a reset moment for the continent. He pointed to the numbers behind that: 80% of participants are young leaders, and the inaugural cohort brings together 238 people from 22 African countries.
The first big panel, on transformative governance, put President Kagame, former President Thabo Mbeki, former Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, and Ghanaās Vice President Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang on stage together. Opoku-Agyemang didnāt hold back on bureaucracy: she said leaders keep forming committees to review the last committeeās report instead of actually implementing anything, and pushed for staying pragmatic and holding institutions accountable. Kagame and the others picked up a similar thread, arguing that a lot of what holds Africa back is self-inflicted inaction, not just outside pressure.
After that came a session on whatās actually being built right now. Dr. Joy Kategeka from the African Development Bank, Dr. Adam Azogenu of ACRA, and Richard Niwagara from the Rwanda Cooperation Initiative walked through three initiatives worth watching: the Africa Visa Openness Index, which tracks how borders are opening up across the continent; an African credit rating agency, meant to get away from foreign agencies that tend to overprice African risk; and Rwandaās own digital public services, held up as a model other countries could scale.
Then things shifted to an intergenerational dialogue, with Wamkele Mene of the AfCFTA Secretariat sitting alongside a group of youth leaders to debate what people are calling āMeta-Africanism.ā The youth in the room werenāt shy about it, either. Their point was basically: weāre already here, weāre ready to lead, so drop the policy barriers standing in the way of cross-border trade and digital connection.
Journalist Charles Onyango-Obbo and Salahedin Bakour of the Panafrican Youth Union closed out the day. Their message: none of this āresetā talk means anything unless it shows up as real changes in incentives and turns into actual economic gains for young Africans.
About the Forum
For context on the event itself: the Africa Mindset Reset Forum is a two-day gathering (August 25ā26, 2026) hosted by the African School of Governance (ASG), co-founded by Rwandan President Paul Kagame and former Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. Itās bringing together roughly 1,000ā2,500 delegates, including heads of state, former presidents, and senior policymakers, to discuss governance, institutions, and execution across the continent (allAfrica.com, The New Times).
More updates to follow as the forum continues.
Some questions from me:
- If youāre processing lithium, whatās the next step?
Some questions from me that are standing out for Day 2:
A Note on Lithium Processing
I received some news that had gone under my radar: Zimbabwe has stopped the export of raw lithium.
This is confirmed (electrive.com, Al Jazeera). In February 2026, Zimbabweās government imposed an immediate ban on the export of raw minerals and lithium concentrate, accelerating a phase-out that had originally been scheduled for January 2027 (Fastmarkets). The country is Africaās largest lithium producer.
Following the steps of Indonesiaās mineral export restrictions traced back to its 2009 Mining Law, with the actual ban on raw nickel ore exports first implemented in January 2014, then fully enforced from January 2020 (USITC). 2010 was simply the year Indonesia became Chinaās top source of raw nickel ore, not when any ban took effect (UNCTAD). Zimbabweās move echoes Indonesiaās broader resource-nationalist strategy of banning raw exports to force local processing, just on a different timeline than I first cited.
Update at 12:35 - Youth takeover, influencers and an unexpected guest
We just had a session for the youth and a take-over by the influencers.
Give the Microphone to the youth
Some of my memorable moments from this forum are the parts where the microphone is given to the young people to speak their mind
I
By the way, I noticed someone coming up the stairs in my section, a familiar face and smile:
Wode Maya is in the buildingš
Some pictures:
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