By the panafrican.email Business Desk | 22 October 2026

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Africa’s private wealth is changing hands, and the conversations about where it goes next are moving into closed rooms. On 10 November, Nairobi will host one of them. API Events, known across the continent for its property and hospitality investment platforms, is launching the Capital & Legacy Forum, a one-day event built for the principals, heirs and advisors who will decide how the continent’s private capital is structured, invested and passed on.

A new format from a familiar organiser

API Events says it is applying its long experience in premier pan-African B2B events to the private wealth space for the first time. The company describes itself as a leading B2B platform for real estate and hotel investment, connecting more than 2,500 investors, developers and capital providers each year across 14 African markets. The Capital & Legacy Forum takes that convening model and narrows it to a much more exclusive audience.

The forum is founded in partnership with Stanbic Bank, Deacon Wealth Management and Suntera Global. It will bring together wealth principals, family office directors and chief investment officers from across the region, alongside the trustees, lawyers, tax advisors and private bankers who work with them. It takes place at Kofisi Kaskazi in Nairobi.

The event was first flagged in Kenyan business media in July, and the organiser’s formal announcement followed this week.

Why family offices, and why now

The organiser points to the scale of the global family office sector as context. Citing Deloitte, API Events says family offices control around $6 trillion in capital. Deloitte counted roughly 8,030 family offices worldwide in 2024, up 31 per cent from 6,130 in 2019, and projects the number will reach 10,720 by 2030.

Africa is part of that story. Murray Anderson, commercial director at API Events, says family offices are increasingly looking beyond listed markets towards private equity, real estate, private credit, infrastructure and renewable energy as they work to protect generational wealth. The forum, he says, is meant to give these investors a platform for frank conversations with their peers.

The timing also reflects a wider shift on the continent. Earlier gatherings in Nairobi, including a private wealth conference in June 2025 organised by Tarra Agility Africa and HNW Advisor, have framed Africa as entering a decade of significant intergenerational wealth transfer, with governance and succession now central concerns for family enterprises.

What is on the agenda

The programme is built around the practical problems families face as their wealth grows more complex. Highlighted sessions and fireside chats include:

• The Architecture of Family Wealth: foundations, holding companies, family investment structures and governance.
• Building the Global African Portfolio and Creating an International Investment Platform: looking beyond the home market to international equities, fixed income, alternatives, real estate, private markets, liquidity and currency diversification.
• Trusts & Structures in Practice: choosing the right structure for different family circumstances, with the practical and tax considerations and how to plan for change.
• Investing in Africa: Opportunity, Concentration & Liquidity.
• The International Family: Residency, Citizenship & Wealth Mobility.
• NextGen Session, From Heirs to Stewards: how the next generation approaches ownership, investment decisions, governance and the responsibilities that come with family wealth.

John McDonald, director of Nairobi and UK-based independent wealth advisory firm Waugh McDonald, says the forum addresses issues families increasingly face as their affairs become more complex, from investment and structuring to international mobility, governance and preparing the next generation.

Curated by design

Attendance is deliberately limited. The organisers say quality comes before ticket numbers, so that principals can speak candidly with others facing similar investment and preservation decisions. That includes the harder subjects, such as family constitutions and resolving internal conflict, which rarely get an airing at large public conferences.

Saif Ahmedi, senior relationship manager at DeaconCapital Asset Management, calls the event an inaugural opportunity for peer-to-peer conversations and first-hand accounts from families exploring wealth preservation and investment.

What it signals for Nairobi

Nairobi has been steadily building a reputation as an East African hub for wealth management, with private wealth conferences, advisory breakfasts and family office events now appearing regularly on the calendar. Kenya is also one of the continent’s largest private wealth markets, a position reflected in earlier industry research. A new forum backed by a major regional bank and international fiduciary and advisory firms adds to that momentum.

The broader question is where this capital will end up. If family offices follow the strategy API Events describes, with more allocation to private markets, infrastructure and renewable energy, African projects that have struggled to find long-term patient capital could be among the beneficiaries. Equally, the session on residency, citizenship and wealth mobility is a reminder that many wealthy African families are also thinking globally, and that keeping capital invested at home is part of the same debate.

Event details

• Event: Capital & Legacy Forum (inaugural edition)
• Organiser: API Events, in partnership with Stanbic Bank, Deacon Wealth Management and Suntera Global
• Date: 10 November 2026
• Venue: Kofisi Kaskazi, Nairobi, Kenya
• Registration: apievents.com/capital-legacy-forum

Editor’s note: Event details are drawn from the organiser’s announcement and have not been independently verified by panafrican.email. Attendance is curated, so interested guests should confirm eligibility with the organiser.