Africa holds more than 40 percent of the world's critical minerals, the youngest and fastest-growing population on earth, and a diaspora whose remittances exceeded USD 96 billion in 2024. Yet the continent's economies borrow in currencies they do not issue, price their commodities in markets they do not govern, and measure development against frameworks calibrated for fundamentally different structural conditions. Africa owns the ground. The 2026 AREF Conference asks: why has that ownership not been converted into wealth — and what would it take to change that?

Following the 2025 edition at the University of Ghana under the theme The Africa Acceleration, the 2026 conference moves to Wits Business School, Johannesburg — one of the continent's foremost graduate schools of business, finance, and economics research. It is convened in continuing collaboration with the University of Ghana Business School and the Department of Economics, University of Ghana. The conference invites scholars, doctoral researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to submit papers that engage rigorously with Africa’s development, monetary, and financial transformation agenda.

Host: Wits Business School
City: Johannesburg, South Africa
Dates: 12 - 14 October 2026

Central Themes

Nine central themes frame the 2026 conference. Each theme speaks directly to the broader conference theme of resource sovereignty, monetary independence, and the architecture of African wealth, and connects its field to the conference’s central question — how ownership is converted into wealth. Authors are invited to locate their submissions within one of these themes, or at the intersections between them.

• Value Addition and Industrial Transformation:
  This theme confronts the processing imperative at the heart of Africa’s wealth paradox: a continent exporting raw materials and importing the finished goods made from them. Papers are invited on beneficiation of critical minerals, agro-processing and food manufacturing, light manufacturing and industrial clusters, special economic zones and industrial policy, technology transfer and absorptive capacity, regional value chains and AfCFTA implementation, the role of state-owned enterprises and development finance institutions, energy and infrastructure as preconditions for industrialisation, skills and the industrial labour market, and the governance architecture required to move African economies up the value ladder. Contributions that link value addition to monetary sovereignty — by reducing import dependence and building domestic productive capacity — are especially encouraged.
• Indigenous Intelligence and Knowledge Systems:
  This theme treats indigenous knowledge not as folklore but as a body of analytical, ecological, institutional, and economic intelligence with direct implications for resource governance, value-chain design, and the continental development contract. Papers are invited on indigenous agricultural and ecological systems, traditional governance institutions, customary finance and solidarity economies, the commercial and ethical framing of indigenous plants and foods, indigenous logics of entrepreneurship, and the integration of African knowledge systems into formal research, policy, and enterprise.
• Gender and Development:
  This theme interrogates how Africa’s development contract is gendered — from land tenure, household economics, and unpaid care work to women-led enterprise, gender-lens investing, and the fiscal and monetary policies that shape women’s economic participation. Papers are invited on gender and labour markets, feminist political economy, gendered dimensions of resource rents, women in philanthropy and social investment, intra-household bargaining, and the measurement of development beyond GDP. Submissions that connect gender to the continent's monetary and financial sovereignty agenda are especially encouraged.
• Financial Innovation and the Digital Revolution:
  This theme focuses on alternative models of payment and settlement, and on what the digital revolution means for African monetary independence. Topics include mobile money ecosystems and agency banking, instant payment rails and Pan-African Payment and Settlement Systems (PAPSS), central bank digital currencies, stablecoins and cross-border settlement, decentralised finance, tokenised commodity and carbon assets, digital public infrastructure, fintech for SMEs, and the governance architecture required to convert digital innovation into structural financial sovereignty.
• Agriculture and Rural Transformation:
  This theme examines agriculture as the foundation of African sovereignty — the sector that employs the majority of the continent’s workforce, anchors food security, and holds the greatest latent potential for inclusive structural change. Papers are invited on smallholder productivity and land reform, agritech and mechanisation, input markets and seed systems, contract farming and outgrower schemes, rural finance and agricultural credit, climate adaptation in rural livelihoods, agri-value chains and market integration, rural infrastructure and logistics, migration and the rural–urban economy, and the political economy of land tenure. Submissions that reposition agriculture from subsistence to strategic sector — and rural areas from periphery to engine of transformation — are especially welcome.
• Energy, Finance and the Just Transition:
  This theme places energy at the substantive core of the architecture of African wealth — its financing, governance, policy, and leadership dimensions rather than its engineering. Papers are invited on energy infrastructure financing, rural electrification and energy access, climate finance and green transitions, the financial dimensions of the just energy transition, energy leadership and governance, the political economy of the processing imperative, and the capital structures required to convert Africa’s energy endowments into industrial capacity. The theme is convened by the African Energy Leadership Centre (AELC) at Wits Business School and is anchored by a dedicated keynote; well-developed papers will be considered for an associated special issue in a conference network journal.
• Philanthropy, Social Investment and the African Development Contract:
  This theme examines philanthropy and social investment as instruments for financing the African development contract. Papers are invited on African philanthropy and giving traditions, social finance and impact investing, development financing, community wealth-building, inclusive development, the role of foundations and civil society in Africa’s development trajectory, social innovation, gender-lens and mission-aligned investing, and the broader financing architecture of the African development contract. Submissions that connect African giving, social finance, and institutional investment to the conference’s central question — how ownership is converted into wealth — are especially encouraged. The theme is convened by the Centre on African Philanthropy and Social Investment (CAPSI) at Wits Business School and is anchored by a featured plenary session that brings the Centre’s work to the full conference.
• Productive Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation:
  This theme addresses the missing middle in the architecture of African wealth: sovereignty over resources and financial assets establishes the conditions for prosperity, but it is productive firms that execute the conversion. Papers are invited on productive entrepreneurship and the institutional allocation of entrepreneurial talent, new venture creation and incubation as industrial policy, entrepreneurial orientation and firm growth, indigenous and solidarity logics of enterprise, agripreneurship and outgrower venture models, women-led venture creation, entrepreneurial finance, and the enterprise mechanisms through which beneficiation, manufacturing, services, and trade convert Africa’s endowments into firms. The theme is convened by the Wits Crucible Centre for Entrepreneurship & New Venture Creation at Wits Business School and features a flagship plenary on entrepreneurship and the architecture of African wealth, alongside practitioner engagement, a founder showcase, and a workshop with invited guest speakers.
• Innovation, Digital, Agile Enterprises and Fast-Growing Ventures:
  This theme interrogates the nexus of innovation, digital transformation, agile enterprise architectures, and fast-growing ventures — how digital platforms, fintech ecosystems, lean organisational models, and scalable venture architectures convert Africa’s resource ownership, youthful demographics, and digital infrastructure into sovereign wealth. Submissions should engage at least one of the theme’s four pillars: innovation, digital, agile enterprises, and fast-growing ventures. Papers are invited on platform economy dynamics and digital business-model innovation in African markets; organisational agility, lean start-up methodology, and digital transformation in African SMEs and corporates; mobile money ecosystems, central bank digital currencies, decentralised finance, PAPSS, and the scaling of fintech ventures; growth strategy, venture capital, and diaspora capital mobilisation for fast-growing ventures; and the innovation policy and digital public infrastructure that enable cross-border digital venture scaling. The theme is convened through the Master of Management in Entrepreneurship & New Venture Creation (MMENVC) programme at Wits Business School. Alongside its academic sessions, the theme features practitioner keynotes from leading African digital founders, a moderated practitioner panel, a half-day venture-design workshop, a policy roundtable on innovation and digital public infrastructure, and a dedicated doctoral and early-career researcher session offering structured feedback from senior scholars and practitioners. Papers presented within this theme are eligible for dedicated stream awards, in addition to the conference-wide A.K. Fosu Prize: the Prof Boris Urban Best Paper Award in Digital Entrepreneurship & Innovation and the Mercedes Da Silva Award for Agile Enterprise & Digital Transformation, together with the Bliss Brands Award for Innovation in African Enterprise.

Topics of Interest

In addition to the nine central themes, papers are welcomed across — but not limited to — the following areas:

• Monetary sovereignty, currency architecture, and exchange rate management in Africa
• Resource governance, critical minerals, and value chain transformation
• Development finance, diaspora capital, and sovereign investment instruments
• Banking sector development, financial inclusion, and mobile money ecosystems
• Decentralised finance, digital assets, and the architecture of financial sovereignty
• Fiscal policy, debt sustainability, and the political economy of structural reform
• Trade, AfCFTA readiness, and the supply-side conditions for intra-African commerce
• Labour markets, inequality, poverty dynamics, and the social architecture of growth
• Climate finance, green transitions, and the economics of natural resource governance
• Philanthropy, social investment, and the financing of the African development contract
• Energy leadership, the just transition, and the economics of the processing imperative
• Entrepreneurship, venture creation, and the innovation economy in African cities
• Comparative development economics, African institutions, and governance frameworks

Submissions & Review

Authors are invited to submit an extended abstract (400-600 words) or a full paper. Submissions must include the paper title, author names and affiliations, a 200-word abstract, five keywords, and JEL classification codes. All submissions must be in English and made through the conference submission portal at https://joucon.com/portal/.

All submissions undergo double-blind peer review, coordinated by theme track chairs drawn from the conference’s disciplinary leads. Each submission is assessed by at least two reviewers against a common rubric of thematic relevance, originality, methodological rigour, contribution, and clarity.

Papers presented at the conference will be considered for publication — subject to peer review — in:

• African Review of Economics and Finance (AREF)
• Ghanaian Journal of Economics
• Journal of African Political Economy and Development

The A.K. Fosu Prize will be awarded to the best paper presented at the conference. Early-career researchers and scholars based on the African continent are especially encouraged to submit.

Key Dates

• Abstract / Paper Submission Deadline: 7 August 2026
• Notification of Acceptance: 15 August 2026
• Early-Bird Registration Closes: 31 August 2026
• Full Paper for Proceedings: 15 September 2026
• Conference Dates: 12 - 14 October 2026
• Venue: Wits Business School, Parktown, Johannesburg

Registration Fees

Early registration closes on 31 August 2026; regular registration runs from 1 to 15 September 2026. All fees are quoted in US dollars.

South African delegates pay the ZAR equivalent at the prevailing ZAR/USD exchange rate, excluding bank fees and VAT. Contact the conference secretariat for a ZAR invoice.

Conference Committee

Organised by AREF Consult in partnership with Wits Business School, University of the Witwatersrand, and the University of Ghana.

• Conference Chair: Prof Jones Odei-Mensah, Academic Director, Wits Business School
• Conference Co-Chair: Prof Imhotep Alagidede, Wits Business School
• Committee: Prof David Phaho, Wits Business School
• Committee: Prof Bheki Moyo, Wits Business School
• Committee: Prof Boris Urban, Wits Business School
• Committee: Prof Ismail Fasanya, School of Economics and Finance, University of the Witwatersrand
• Committee: Prof Godfred Amewu, University of Ghana Business School
• Committee: Dr Emmanuel Abakah, Bank of Ghana
• Committee: Dr McEdward Murimbika, Wits Business School
• Committee: Dr Sylvester Senyo Horvey, Wits Business School
• Committee: Dr Mahad Moti, Wits Business School

Scientific review is coordinated by theme track chairs drawn from the disciplinary leads of Wits Business School, together with reviewers from the University of Ghana and the wider African scholarly network.

Submissions and Enquiries
www.arefconsult.com and www.african-review.com