In two weeks, Nairobi will host the EABC East Africa CEO & Investment Forum 2026, on 17-18 September. The annual gathering of East African business leaders arrives in a buoyant context: in 2025, Tanzania recorded 927 investment projects worth USD 12 billion, and the May 2026 Kenya-Tanzania Business Forum set an ambitious single market target to push past that milestone.
EABC brings East African CEOs together in Nairobi
The East African Business Council (EABC), the East African Development Bank (EADB) and GIZ are co-hosting a two-day summit on 17-18 September 2026 in Nairobi, gathering around 500 business leaders, ministers and policymakers from across the region. The ambition: to make this forum a "CEO-led, results-driven platform" for accelerating trade, investment and competitiveness in East Africa.
Seven major agenda tracks will cover market integration, digitalisation, green finance, infrastructure and agricultural transformation. The meeting takes place against a backdrop of accelerating convergence between regional economies.
Kenya-Tanzania: gunning for a single market and $12 billion
The Kenya-Tanzania Business Forum, held on 4 May 2026 in Dar es Salaam, set out the roadmap: create a unified single market between the two countries to push past USD 12 billion in investment. The figures reflect real momentum — in 2025, Tanzania already recorded 927 investment projects valued at USD 12 billion, up from 911 projects worth USD 9.3 billion the previous year.
The 500 Kenyan companies present in Tanzania alone account for USD 1.7 billion in foreign direct investment, and bilateral trade has crossed the symbolic USD 1 billion threshold. To go further, forum participants called for mutual recognition of standards and elimination of non-tariff barriers — particularly the duplicate product testing imposed by both countries' standards agencies, a source of unnecessary costs for businesses.
Why it matters
East Africa is one of the continent's fastest-growing economic spaces. The convergence of Kenya and Tanzania toward an integrated market — driven by CEO-level forums — creates concrete opportunities for Indian Ocean businesses: agricultural exports, port logistics, financial services. For Mauritian, Malagasy or Réunionnais operators with East Africa exposure, the EABC September Forum is a must-watch.
Sources: East African Business Council (EABC), TanzaniaInvest, ZAWYA, EABC LinkedIn.