SPIEF 2026 Unfiltered: Africa Asserts Pivot to a Multipolar Future
SPIEF 2026 Unfiltered: Africa Asserts Pivot to a Multipolar Future
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African leaders at SPIEF 2026 forge a new sovereignty, demonstrating that the unipolar era is over, and Africa chooses partnership, not patronage.
The 2026 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) has once again proven to be more than a conventional investment conference. For African delegates, it served as a strategic launchpad—a public declaration that the continent is no longer content to be a passive recipient of Western-designed global rules. In an exclusive interview with Sputnik Africa, July Gabarari Moyo, Minister of Energy and Energy Resources Development of Zimbabwe, addressed how his country has responded and developed resilience in breaking Western sanctions by mobilizing internal capital markets, attracting independent power producers from friendly nations, and deepening bilateral mechanisms with Russia.
“We have mobilized internal resources of our capital markets to also say they must invest in energy [...] we have been denied multilateral funding agencies to fund us, and we have had to rely on bilateral, and this is where friends like the Russian Federation come in and other friends who can now invest bilaterally, both by state actors as well as the private sectors from those countries which are friendly to us [...] we have independent power producers, mostly coming from friendly countries [...] but the investment is coming from friends rather than multilateral institutions, which can be blocked as part of the sanctions,” the minister explained.
Also at the forum, Elias Monage, president of the Black Business Council and member of the South Africa BRICS Business Council, shifted the focus to the continent’s industrial and financial landscape. He identified the payment system as the primary constraint on Russia-Africa trade and how to break the financial glass ceiling.
“I think one of the growing trades between our respective countries is agricultural products, automotive and steel, and engineering components and services [...] When the BRICS was under the presidency of Russia, the question of the payment system was one of the critical areas that emanated from 2023 [...] the question of national currencies to be utilized as settlements was one of the options for consideration. To that effect, a number of countries, China, India, and Brazil, are now settling using their own currencies as opposed to dollars [..] We need them to look at our own common currency in the BRICS countries,” he stated.
This episode also features:
Ephraim Balozi Mafuru, Director General of Tanzania Tourist Board
Abraham Korbla Klutsey, Executive Director of Citizens Network for Peace and Security in Africa, Ghana
Discover more insights from our outstanding guests on the Pan-African Frequency podcast, proudly brought to you by Sputnik Africa.
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