Congressman Meeks Travels with President Obama to Africa

Congressman Meeks Travels with President Obama to Africa

President Obama, Congressman Meeks, members of Congress, and several Cabinet members will be arriving in Africa this afternoon to attend the GES Summit in Nairobi this weekend, and meetings at the Africa Union in Ethiopia next week.

During this trip, Mr. Meeks will be meeting with several business leaders actively engaged in U.S.- Africa trade and investments, including:
• Coca-Cola Africa and Coke Foundation – The largest employer on the continent.
• Standard Chartered Bank – Leading international bank with 150 years in Africa.
• Rendeavour – The largest urban land developer in Africa with $2 billion in new commitments to residential developments in five Sub-Saharan African nations.
• Mastercard – The Sub-Saharan Africa division of Mastercard recently launched the “MasterCard Labs for Financial Inclusion” with support from the Gates Foundation. This Lab will be working with local entrepreneurs to create commercially viable financial products and services to reach over 100 million unbanked and underbanked people, including small and micro merchants.
• State Dinner with President Uhuru Kenyatta and African delegations.


This week, President Obama held a reception celebrating the renewal of the African Growth and Opportunities Act
“Now that it’s been renewed, AGOA will be central to our efforts to boost the trade and investment that supports hundreds of thousands of jobs both in Africa and the United States, creating opportunities for all of us. And I’m especially pleased that AGOA will continue to encourage good governance, labor and human rights. That’s something that we can be proud of." – President Barack Obama


This week, President Obama announced the 2nd U.S.-Africa Business Forum in 2016
“We're going to have to keep on encouraging more American trade and investment in Africa. There’s still a lot of misperceptions within the business community. And that's why, last year, the United States hosted its first U.S-Africa Business Forum. Tonight, I can announce that we will host the next business forum, next year -- and I look forward to working with all of you to help unleash the growth and opportunity that we know Africa is capable of -- (applause) -- progress that delivers more hope and more progress to Africans across the continent, and more jobs and growth here in the United States.” – President Barack Obama


This week, Congressman Meeks and Members of Congress welcomed Nigerian President Buhari to Capitol Hill

Discussions centered on security and the fight against Boko Haram. Mr. Meeks also raised questions on the economic challenges facing the new Nigerian government,
and opportunities in the power sector, agriculture, and other sectors.


Last week, Congressman Meeks welcomed Power Africa Coordinator Andy Herscowitz

USAID's Power Africa Coordinator, Andy Herscowitz (based in South Africa), visited Washington, DC, the week of July 13th. Mr. Herscowitz provided an update on Power Africa’s second year of progress, and ongoing expansion efforts. To date, Power Africa has leveraged more than $20 billion from the private sector for new on and off-grid projects in sub-Saharan Africa

Congressman Meeks was joined by Sophia Larfargue, Chief of Staff, and Aymeric Saha, Policy Director for Financial services.