The African continent’s brightest talents and sharpest intellects will come together this Friday, 7th April for the fifth Africa Report debate at the opening of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation Governance Weekend in Morocco.

The participants will debate: “IS AFRICA'S DEVELOPMENT AN ILLUSION?”, exploring whether Africa’s development has advanced its people, and whether the right investments - in education, health, infrastructure and business - and economic structures are being put in place to ensure a prosperous, equitable future.

Following on from previous events in Accra, Geneva, London and Abidjan, this year’s debate will feature high profile speakers and experts, with an audience of top politicians, business people and activists from across Africa. The debate will be opened by Minister Moulay Hafid Elalamy, Minister of Industry, Trade, Investment & Digital Economy and Mo Ibrahim, Founder of Celtel, The Mo Ibrahim Foundation, and B Team Leader.

The B Team are proud supporters of the event, which will also feature, Bob Collymore, B Team Leader, and CEO of the Kenyan company Safaricom. As we work to grow a continent-wide movement of African business leaders who are committed to prioritising people and planet, finding answers to how to ensure all African people can develop, equitably and sustainably is crucial.Key speakers and experts include:

• Minister Moulay Hafid Elalamy, Minister of Industry, Trade, Investment & Digital Economy
• Mo Ibrahim, Founder, Mo Ibrahim foundation, and The B Team
• Donald Kaberuka, Special Envoy, African Union Peace Fund and former president of the African Development Bank
• Mohamed Ould Bouamatou, Founder, Fondation pour l’ Égalite des Chances en Afrique
• Vera Songwe, Head of West and Central Africa, IFC
• Bob Collymore, CEO, Safaricom, and The B Team
• Ismail Douiri, Co-CEO, Attijariwafabank
• Jon Marks, Chairman and founder, Cross-border information
• Mohamed Ben Ouda, CEO, SNTL Group
• Ann Grant, Senior Independent Director, Tullow Oil Plc
• Closing speech: Mr El Malki, Président de la Chambre des Représentants, Morocco

Join The Africa Report Debate live and add your comments to the discussion on:Twitter @theafricareport, #ARDebates, Linkedin, or Facebook.

We’ll be live tweeting the debate from The B Team twitter account as well, join us here.

The Africa Report is published by Groupe Jeune Afrique, which has been the number 1 Pan-African media for 57 years and has 4 magazines, 2 major websites and a publishing house – in French and English. The Africa Report is the leading English-language Pan African magazine. Apart from being the best-selling international publication in most African countries, it is the only media to have been awarded media of the year three times (2012, 2007 and 2006).