Africa's Green Economy Summit returns to Cape Town from 23 to 26 February 2027, holding its fifth edition at the Century City Conference Centre with the City of Cape Town confirmed as host city. The organiser, the VUKA Group, opened the commercial cycle for the edition on 1 October 2026 with the release of its preview brochure.
The 2027 theme is given as Africa's Green Deal: Scaling Investment and Solutions for a Climate-Resilient Future, and the summit is positioned less as a policy conference than as a place where projects meet money.
What the organiser is promising
The VUKA Group expects more than 700 delegates and says it will put over 40 investment-ready projects in front of them, representing a pipeline it values at more than 2 billion dollars. A separate Green Village programme is expected to draw more than 200 further attendees.
Eight sectors are in scope: renewable energy, green transport, water, waste, sustainable agriculture, green buildings, the blue economy and climate technology. The breadth is deliberate, and it reflects how African climate finance actually arrives, in mixed portfolios rather than single-technology bets.
Advisory board and speakers
The summit's advisory board runs to 33 members and is chaired by John Roome, an independent senior adviser on climate change. Confirmed speakers for the fifth edition include Barbara Buchner of the Climate Policy Initiative, Lisa Pinsley of African Infrastructure Investment Managers, Aakif Merchant of Convergence, Candice Stevens of the Sustainable Finance Coalition and Matsi Modise of the World Climate Foundation.
Hywel George of Old Mutual Investments has described the summit as a must-attend for anyone serious about the future of the continent, which is the kind of endorsement that matters to the institutional allocators the organiser is trying to attract.
Why the host-city role matters
The City of Cape Town taking the host-city role gives the 2027 edition something earlier editions lacked, which is municipal procurement weight sitting in the room alongside development finance. African climate projects rarely fail for want of a concept; they stall at the point where a bankable offtake or a municipal commitment has to be signed. Putting the host municipality on the programme is a direct answer to that, and it is the clearest reason this edition is worth watching.
