Setting the Scene for Scotland London Africa Week

Chief Executive, Frazer Lang, and Chief Operating Officer, Seona Shand, recently visited London to start the preparations for this year's Scotland London Africa Week. Here's how their visit went ...

We spent a brilliant lunchtime at Diageo in their incredible building in Soho, exploring speaker opportunities, diversity & inclusion and their powerful community initiatives across Africa.

Later, we had a fantastic meeting with The EIC to discuss our upcoming delegations to Angola and Egypt — two markets full of opportunity — and the growing potential across the MENA region.

Our second day kicked off with a powerful conversation at Portcullis House with Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, the UK Trade Envoy to Ghana. We explored opportunities for deeper trade between Scotland and Ghana, reflected on our trade mission to the West African Energy Summit last year and discussed Ghana’s ambition to become a 24-hour economy — and the infrastructure needed to get there.

Next stop: the National Bank of Egypt UK. It was inspiring to hear their enthusiasm about connecting with Scottish businesses and their interest in engaging during our Scotland-London-Africa Week and upcoming roundtables.

A quick lunch in the sunshine before our final meeting of the day with Agnes Gitau and the Board of the East African Association. A brilliant session discussing collaboration, ministerial visits to Scotland and showcasing Scottish innovation across key sectors.

We were also delighted to meet with Chris Murray MP at the Houses of Parliament at the end of the day. His ongoing support for our work connecting Scotland with key markets across Africa is deeply appreciated. It’s encouraging to have champions in Parliament who understand the value of building strong international partnerships and who are committed to helping us open doors for Scottish businesses.

We were honoured to meet with Arwa Al Balushi to explore deepening ties between Scotland and Oman — starting with plans to host a delegation from Scotland to London this September, followed by an exciting trade mission out to Oman to explore investment opportunities in the hydrogen sector.

Seona Shand, Chief Operating Officer at SABA, said: “Our recent visit to London was a fantastic opportunity to strengthen ties with UK policymakers and deepen collaboration around trade with African markets. The level of engagement and enthusiasm we received reaffirms the importance of Scotland’s role in these conversations. Preparations are now well underway for this year’s Scotland London Africa Week, and we’re excited to build on this momentum by showcasing the innovation, partnerships and global ambition that define Scotland’s relationship with Africa.”