Moving beyond the traditional conference rhetoric, the Heritage Collective convened an exclusive, action-focused roundtable in Lagos, marking the culmination of a year-long initiative that spanned major economic hubs from Abidjan to New York. The gathering, held during the MMC Trade Conference, was themed “Redefining Africa’s Economic Architecture: From Context to Capital.”
The objective, as defined by Heritage Collective co-founder Habibah A. Waziri, was explicitly pragmatic: bring founders, investors, policymakers, and ecosystem builders into a deliberately small, high-trust environment to match identified opportunities with capital and capability, and leave with concrete commitments.
A Launchpad for Continental Scale
The roundtable treated Nigeria not as a limitation, but as a launchpad for pan-African growth. Contributors engaged in trading live business examples, mapping immediate collaborations, and designing models that are scalable across the continent.
Frederick Akpoghene, founder of JéGO Technologies, described the session as a “live build,” emphasizing the essential role of high-trust networking in Africa’s development.
“This roundtable creates the kind of high-trust environment where founders, investors and ecosystem leaders can speak honestly and co-design the bridges needed to scale across the continent,” said Akpoghene. “For a startup like ours building clean energy and mobility infrastructure, these conversations are essential — they align capital, partnerships and policy around shared goals. It’s not just a discussion; it’s a construction site for Africa’s future economy.”
The initiative successfully cemented its year-long arc by prioritizing real-economy transactions and partnerships over mere panels, demonstrating a commitment to tangible economic development.
