Since 1956, the BCA has been connecting Africa to the international business community. Its various programmes seek to promote and facilitate its objective of promoting African business, trade and commerce.
Through its scholarship programmes, the BCA invests in the next generation of African business leaders through grants and bursaries.
In 2017 BCA and Invest Africa announced a merger of their respective businesses. As of May 2018, the two organisations have operated as Invest Africa sharing The Business Council for Africa’s well-known logo.
In May 2018 a formal merger of the commercial divisions of the business was signed with The Business Council for Africa, now BCA to differentiate its status and image as a ‘not for profit company’ limited by the guarantee of its directors. BCA is uniquely available to use its funds for philanthropic and similar purposes in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Board of Directors
Arnold Ekpe – Chairman
Arnold Ekpe is a retired international banker. He has headed some of the leading African banks including serving as CEO of Ecobank and UBA and setting up Citibank Africa’s corporate and structured trade finance business. He currently serves on the board of companies in Africa, Europe, America and India that are focused on impact in Africa.
David Lamb
David read law at Edinburgh, is a qualified accountant, has worked in international banking and with trading and manufacturing businesses overseas. He returned to London in 1991 with Rothmans International and in 1994 joined Barclays. He is currently an adviser in the Cheverell Partnership which provides financial and general guidance to businesses focused on Southern Africa. He is also a private investor with interests in Zimbabwe.
Terhas Asefaw Berhe
Terhas is the Managing Director and Founder of the leading international consultancy Brand Communications, which focuses on African companies seeking to expand both within Africa and beyond, together with having an eye on becoming iconic brands. With over 25 years’ experience as a strategist and across financial marketing, communications and brand design, Terhas is widely acknowledged as a thought-leader in the evolving agency and brand landscape. She has been named by the Holmes Report as one of the ‘Top 25 Innovators – EMEA’ and thrives on helping African companies to fulfil their potential.
Michael Monari
A seasoned Corporate Executive with over 30 years’ experience, Michael has an impressive track record of turning around and rapidly growing banks in multiple African countries. Passionate about financial inclusion in Africa, he has recently mobilised resources and set up Longitude Finance to pursue the objective of supporting small businesses to be financially included and creating beneficial socio-economic impact.
Clive Carpenter
Clive is an international banker and company director with a proven track record in management at board level. He has nearly 40 years’ experience in business and finance, much of this gained in Africa, particularly Kenya and Nigeria. Clive is a sought-after adviser on many Africa-focused subjects and holds several board appointments and consultancy posts.
Dr Knox Chitiyo
Knox is a Zimbabwean-born UK resident with expertise in Zimbabwean/African and broader international security, diplomacy, development and diaspora issues. He is the Africa Associate Fellow with the Royal Institute for International Affairs contributing to the Chatham House Africa Programme. Knox has experience in the military, as a diplomat; as an international adviser to institutions and governments and as a policy /academic analyst. He is the President of the Britain Zimbabwe Society.
Steve Cameron
Steve has 40 years’ business development, strategic, tactical and risk management experience in maritime trade, ports and logistics, and is also skilled in African markets. Combined with his maritime and Africa-focused consultancy, CMR, he has worked on projects in 20 African countries and also provides African intercultural briefings.
Steve is a long-standing trustee of The Africa Centre and member of the Royal African Society. He is also a Liveryman at the Hon. Company of Master Mariners, and a Freeman of the City of London.
Jeremy Sivyer
Jeremy is an experienced commercial and company lawyer, having spent most of his career at Simmons & Simmons, where he was for some time Head of the Commercial Group and joint Head of the India Group. He then moved to Russell-Cooke in 2012 and joined Bishop & Sewell in 2016. Jeremy has always had a significant international dimension to his work, with an emphasis on India, the Middle East, Southern Europe and Africa. He is Honorary Legal Adviser to BCA and a long-standing member of the Commercial Law Committee of the City of London Law Society.
Hada Kamara
Hada is a Mauritanian national residing in the UK with over 15 years of experience in Investment Banking. She has worked across Europe and Africa after studying corporate finance and financial markets in Paris. She began her career working in France before joining the Ecobank Group in Nigeria, Paris and London. Hada is the cofounder of Khasay Ltd, a consulting company focused on advising high growth African firms with a strong technology component.