Wits Business School (WBS) is proud to be hosting the annual African Review of Economics & Finance (AREF) Conference from 12 – 14 October 2026 in collaboration with the University of Ghana Business School and the Department of Economics, University of Ghana. 

Following on from the 2025 edition at the University of Ghana, AREF 2026 will explore the central themes of resource sovereignty, monetary independence, and the architecture of African wealth.

Conference Chair, Prof Jones Odei-Mensah, academic director at WBS, provides context:

“Africa holds more than 40 percent of the world’s critical minerals, the youngest and fastest-growing population on earth, and a diaspora whose remittances exceeded USD 96 billion in 2024. Yet the continent’s economies borrow in currencies they do not issue, price their commodities in markets they do not govern, and measure development against frameworks calibrated for fundamentally different structural conditions. 

Africa owns the ground. The 2026 AREF Conference asks: why has that ownership not been converted into wealth — and what would it take to change that?”

The three-day conference will interrogate Africa’s development, monetary, and financial transformation agenda through nine tracks: 

• Value Addition and Industrial Transformation
• Indigenous Intelligence and Knowledge Systems 
• Gender and Development
• Financial Innovation and the Digital Revolution
• Agriculture and Rural Transformation
• Energy, Finance, and the Just Transition
• Philanthropy, Social Investment and the African Development Contract
• Productive Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation
• Innovation, Digital, Agile Enterprises and Fast-growing Ventures

The conference invites scholars, doctoral researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to submit an extended abstract (400–600 words) or a full paper. Submissions must include the paper title, author names and affiliations, a 200-word abstract, five keywords, and JEL classification codes. All submissions must be in English and made through the conference submission portal at https://joucon.com/portal/.

The deadline for submissions has been extended to 14 September 2026.  For enquiries, please email Sylvester.horvey@wits.ac.za.