On Friday, October 16, the Atlantic Council, in partnership with the International Development Finance Commission, held a virtual conference “Investing in Africa’s Future.” In five panels, the event brought together over 20 “experts” and high-level officials for discussion. As event host and Atlantic Council President Fred Kempe put it in his introduction, “We have seldom had such interest in an event that we have done at the Atlantic Council.”
Opening the first panel, Adam Boehler— CEO of the International Development Finance Corp (DFC, created in 2018), as well as CEO of the Department of Commerce’s Prosper Africa investment program— lamented they could not be meeting in person, noting that he and President Trump would have prefered that. “I want everyone to know here, that the President of the United States asked me multiple times to pull together a state dinner for our leading allies in Africa,” Boehler said, “and it is only Covid which stops us from doing that.” Boehler additionally announced that the US has just concluded an agreement for development of nuclear power with South Africa. “We recently signed a letter of intent for nuclear power in South Africa,” he said. “Over the summer, I decided— after consultation with Congress and stakeholders— to eliminate the DFC’s prohibition on nuclear projects. Nuclear technology today is very different from nuclear technology 20 years ago: It’s safer. It’s clean energy.”
