The African and Caribbean Business Experience (AACBE) creates a space for UK business to access solid opportunities in emerging markets in Africa and the Caribbean. With a firm focus on quality and a careful evaluation filter, we only connect the best to the best.

AACBE is the brainchild of two established advisory companies – Urban Inclusion and Regenfirst – with a combined track record of more than 20 years in regeneration and business development.

Recognising the role of the UK diaspora in linking back to their countries by heritage, AACBE undertakes to showcase realistic and reliable investment opportunities enabling the global business community to See Africa and the Caribbean Differently

The 2012 AACBE London Expo

The African and Caribbean Business Experience was launched to great acclaim with its first major Expo in August 2012. Held at the 5-star Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane, the event brought together UK cabinet ministers such as Vince Cable, with leading business people from Africa and the Caribbean, such as the Nigerian Stock Exchange’s CEO Oscar Onyema. With more than 3000 business representatives from the UK and abroad attending over the week and widespread media coverage including the BBC’s flagship topical review Newsnight, the 2012 AACBE Expo was a definitive success.

Click here to learn more about the 2012 AACBE Expo

Already we have reports of successful business relationships being forged as a result of the 2012 AACBE Expo. We are already expanding and investing in this legacy, while creating new opportunities for the UK micro and SME sector, especially the diaspora, to connect with business on the African continent and in the Caribbean.

Key Activities

AACBE Business Expos – We deliver large-scale business expos during major sporting events, such as Olympics and Commonwealth Games. This integrated event platform is used to promote positive business and investment opportunities developed by UK, African and Caribbean businesses to the target regions. Watch video highlights from our flagship 2012 Expo

Annual Trade Missions and Mini-Expos – We provide comprehensive support beforehand to ensure the delivery of bespoke business-to-business meetings on the trade mission. Our focus on excellence means that all parties are quality-checked to meet our assured standard. With an emphasis on business matching via Mini-Expos, this service adds value to existing trade mission programmes delivered by mainstream providers.

African and Caribbean Inward Missions and Study Visits to the UK – We work with the private sector, and nation states across West Africa and the Caribbean to promote feasible, bankable projects, looking to attract the best global investors. This service separates the best from the rest; we only work with quality projects. For target groups that have well-developed projects we provide inward mission services to include small networking events with the private sector and investors in the UK. We also provide capacity building and business development services via a network of distinguished and trusted consultants and referral partners.

Objectives

Registered as a social enterprise, AACBE will invest a proportion of the profit from the Expo into grassroots projects in Africa and the Caribbean beyond 2012.

Our objectives are to:

• Create a platform for the rebranding and visibility of Africa and promote both Africa and the Caribbean as great places to live and do business
• Provide selected industry sectors with a unique opportunity to engage with key UK, African and Caribbean buyers and sellers at sector specific events
• Support UK and diaspora businesses to overcome perceived barriers to entry into the fast-growing African markets, in particular concerns surrounding accountability, transparency and corporate governance
• Promote ‘South to South’ connections through showcasing the best goods and services designed for the emerging market consumer base
• Promote the best African and Caribbean innovators and entrepreneurs of the future
• Support African and Caribbean business to access expertise and training from the diaspora
• Support African, Caribbean and diaspora businesses to grow and export