Kenya’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Musalia Mudavadi left on Thursday for Tokyo to attend the ministerial meeting of the ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD).

The meeting, co-hosted by Japan, the United Nations, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank, and the African Union Commission, is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

The two-day meeting aims to discuss innovative solutions for Africa’s development. Moreover, it aims to follow up on implementing the outcomes of the eighth TICAD summit, held in Tunisia in August 2022, and prepare for the ninth TICAD summit, scheduled for August 2025 in Yokohama.

In Tokyo, Mudavadi, according to the Foreign Office will seek to “showcase opportunities available for investment in Kenya by the Japanese private sector.”

He will also engage in sidelines with foreign ministers from Japan, Senegal and Liberia.

This year’s meeting will gather African ministers and global representatives to strategize on medium- and long-term priorities per the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

It will also address key development issues such as economic growth, peace, and stability, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained.

The TICAD is a major international forum created in 1993 by the government of Japan to strengthen dialogue and cooperation with Africa. Initially held every five years, TICAD shifted to a triennial schedule, reflecting a heightened sense of urgency and dedication to Africa’s development.

On 28 August 2019, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe renewed Tokyo’s pledge to boost investments in Africa through the country’s private sector to help the continent’s development, Kyodo News agency reported.

“Over the next three years, Japan is going to invest $30 billion as the sum of public and private financial contribution,” he said during the concluding remarks of TICAD’s eighth summit.