When the Africa Soft Power Project was launched in 2020 – against the backdrop of a world locked down and a continent whose creative industries had been abruptly paused – the founding conviction was clear if not yet fully tested: that Africa’s soft power and its economic prospects were more deeply connected than the mainstream conversation acknowledged,and that the right platform could help change that.

Six years on, and with the Summit now in its seventh edition, I look back on that conviction and find it not just intact, but vindicated, and considerably deepened.

The Africa Soft Power Summit convenes in Nairobi in May 2026, under the theme ‘Africa’s Compound Interest: Aligning Ecosystems of Finance, Creativity and Human Capital for Growth’. The theme reflects something we have watched happen in real time: the conversation has shifted from “why does African culture matter to the economy?” to “how do we build the structures that let it do what it is already capable of doing?” That shift has taken six years of consistent work. It is the work I am most proud of.

What has changed over those years is scope, not conviction. The Africa Soft Power Group – which brings together the Africa Soft Power Project, African Women on Board, and RDF Strategies, organisations that each predate the Summit – now works across a range of programmes that reflect how interconnected our founding agenda always was. The Climate Change Photo Essay Prize, now in its third edition, turns young African photographers into climate advocates and archivists. The Road to 100 Million Climate Soldiers is building climate literacy infrastructure across the continent. Project Yellow Card invests in the next generation of African leaders. The Human Capital & Governance Framework embeds accountability and decision discipline in African institutions.

These are not separate agendas. They are the same conviction – that Africa’s narrative must be shaped by Africa – seen from different angles and pursued across every dimension of the work.

The Summit has grown accordingly. From a small founding gathering to a convening that now draws delegates from more than forty countries, it has become a space where the strategic intent of African professionals and institutions around the world meets the momentum building on the continent. Heads of government, central bank executives, leading investors, creative pioneers, and diaspora voices – in genuine conversation, not parallel silos. That is what we set out to build, and it is what we are building.

My own journey has run alongside it, from years in media and tech, including as CEO of Spinlet, then Africa’s largest music streaming platform, to work that now encompasses strategic communications, reputation design, and advisory mandates with governments and leading institutions across the continent and globally. The thread through all of it is the same: African perspectives are not a regional interest. They are a global necessity, and the organisations that understand this earliest will be best positioned for what comes next.

As we gather in Nairobi for the seventh time, the compound interest is beginning to show. Welcome to ASP. Explore the site, engage with the work, and reach out, wherever in the world you may be.

Dr. Nkiru Balonwu
Founder & Chief Executive, Africa Soft Power Group
May 2026