Vénicia Guinot keynote speaker

Vénicia Guinot is a Pan-African Serial Entrepreneur with a mega vision to position Africa as a leading global investments. She is the Chairman and Founding President of the TROPICS GROUP of COMPANIES, which holds several companies under its umbrella.

As part of the TROPICS GROUP OF COMPANIES’ portfolio, Vénicia founded the leading and impactful TROPICS BUSINESS SUMMIT, in October 2017 in South Africa, and has built it into the International Organization for win-win Public-Private Cooperation. Her 6th annual summit took place in Cabo Verde after 5 consecutive years in South Africa; the event managed to attract an envelope of $500 million worth of investment through the TROPICS INVEST & CO. sister company to fund PPP projects and scale tangible SMEs/SMMEs solutions from Africa to the rest of the world in line with the UN's 2030 Agenda and the African Union's Agenda 2063, the development blueprint to achieve inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development.

Vénicia was born on January 7, 1987 in the Republic of Congo (Central Africa) and spent part of her formative years in Brazzaville. In 2006, she left Congo-Brazzaville and moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, where she furthered her studies at the University of South Africa and where she currently lives. As a strategically thinking and energetic woman, Vénicia has never rested on her laurels. She works tirelessly to expand, improve, perfect her TROPICS empire to live up to her ambitions and give the right input to the economy.

Vénicia is a board member and head of New Partnerships Department for the WORLD YOUTH SUMMIT ON SDGs and an executive member of the aforementioned assembly (an initiative chaired by the President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Akufo Addo). In addition to her list of multiple awards, she is a Global Advisor to the Luxembourg - Cape Verde Chamber of Commerce (CCLCV) in Luxembourg City, where she sits on the Board of Directors and advises the President on issues of strategic partner lobby work, public sector - private engagement between Luxembourg and Africa including the promotion of foreign direct investment for the benefit of the African people.

Dubbed “The Storyteller in Chief”, Vénicia's work has been praised and rewarded more than seven (7) times across continents and her excellent reputation is recognized worldwide. An enterprising and brilliantly thinking entrepreneur, she founded her company with nothing, but has built it into one of the most well-known and respected brands on the African continent and worldwide. Vénicia is undoubtedly one of the most influential young African Women “under the age of 40” on the continent and worldwide, whose desire is to empower and inspire young African entrepreneurs on the African continent and throughout the diaspora. She has achieved this by creating a platform with the TROPICS BUSINESS SUMMIT that serves as visibility to nurture African talent, forge new synergies between governments, investors and entrepreneurs from the 5 continents, connect with investors and close the funding gap between Anglophone, Francophone, Lusophone, Hispanophone and Arabic speaking markets.

In strategic set-ups with her Board of Directors and her global team at her Africa-focused trade and investment promotion platforms known as the TROPICS BUSINESS CHAMBER and TROPICS INVEST & CO., she strives to boost Africa's attractiveness, secure access to foreign direct investment (FDI) in order to position all 54 African countries as leading investment destinations.

For some time now, she has been dealing with the new technologies in sustainability and blockchain, as well as in the sectors of artificial intelligence, fintech and crypto currencies. She is convinced that a new era has been ushered in and no one can afford to ignore this new borderless technological age.

A true agent of change, Vénicia is passionate about empowering young Africans to become the next generation of African DOers, as they are the true pillars of pan-African society. In this way, Vénicia invests in Education Philanthropy and she strives to mentoring the new generation of aspiring young leaders through the TROPICS STARTUPS INCUBATOR (TSI) as well as the TROPICS WOMEN IN BUSINESS (TWiB) ACCELERATOR, helping them improve their mindset and position them on a new "business prism".

Vénicia’s African dream continues to be realized through the implementation of an effective country image management policy that she designs for African States, but also through the structuring of sustainable projects and internationalization strategies "Made in Africa" beyond the borders of her beloved continent. Her work has been featured on Forbes Africa, BBC Afrique, TV5 Monde, Radio France Internationale, Ventures Africa, The Guardian Nigeria, Cuisine Noir Magazine, Africa Business Radio, SABC, Channel Africa, Bizcommunity, Radiotelevisao Caboverdiana, etc.