A first-of-its-kind credentialling programme, endorsed by four Heads of State and anchored in Kigali, will train a new generation of negotiators to secure better outcomes in mining, debt, trade, health, and climate finance.
Kigali, 14 May 2026 – On the sidelines of the Africa CEO Forum, AfroChampions and the
African School of Governance (ASG) today signed a formal agreement to establish and
jointly operate the Sankoree Institute of Global Negotiators (SIGN), the flagship
credentialling programme of the Accra Reset’s sovereignty agenda.
SIGN will create Africa’s first structured, practice-oriented credential for sovereign negotiators: the public officials, technical advisers, and sector specialists who sit across the table from multinational corporations, multilateral creditors, and bilateral partners in transactions worth hundreds of billions of dollars each year. Its curriculum draws on African intellectual traditions, historical negotiation case studies, and AI-enabled intelligence tools to equip practitioners with the preparation that the stakes demand.
The agreement was signed by Paulo Gomes, Co-Chair of AfroChampions, and Francis Gatare, President of ASG, under the high patronage of:
- H.E. John Dramani Mahama, President of the Republic of Ghana
- H.E. Hailemariam Desalegn, former Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic
Republic of Ethiopia - H.E. Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
- H.E. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former President of the Republic of Liberia
SIGN is a Gamechanger
Every year, African governments negotiate mining concessions, sovereign debt restructurings, trade agreements, technology partnerships, and climate finance instruments. In too many of these encounters, the asymmetry of preparation between African delegations and their counterparts translates directly into lost revenue, unfavourable stabilisation clauses, and diminished policy autonomy.
SIGN addresses this structural deficit by treating sovereign negotiation as a vocational calling or profession that requires formal training, credentialling, peer networks, and shared institutional memory.
Headquartered at ASG’s Kigali campus, the programme will deliver practice-oriented training through Deal Labs built around real negotiation scenarios, supported by the OCTagon Suite, an AI-enabled intelligence platform providing real-time precedent analysis, scenario modelling, and a sovereign negotiation case library. Graduates earn Associate and Fellow designations, revalidated every three years, creating a continent-wide community of credentialled dealmakers bound by shared standards and a confidential intelligence-sharing protocol.
Part of a Broader Agenda
SIGN is a flagship of the Accra Reset, a Heads-of-State-led movement for sovereign agency across the Global South. Convened by former and current Heads of State and steered by a Presidential Council that includes President Lula da Silva of Brazil, and Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, the Accra Reset operates through a suite of interlocking instruments. From health industrialisation (HINGE) and skills – labour mobility (Masterkey) to economic transformation enabled by innovative finance and critical minerals leveraging (Sovereign Prosperity Spheres) and reform of global health governance (HLP-GHAG), the Accra Reset is both an advocacy platform and a driver of tangible policy outcomes.
SIGN supplies the human resource capacity that makes every other instrument effective. Sovereign Prosperity Spheres require negotiators who can structure joint ventures that retain processing value on the continent. HINGE’s modular health innovation efforts dependon procurement compacts negotiated with pharmaceutical suppliers. Without a cadre of professionals trained to the task, even the most elegant policy solutions remain vulnerable to uneven implementation.
Institutional Foundations
ASG, co-founded by President Paul Kagame and H.E. Hailemariam Desalegn, brings academic capacities, pedagogical standards, accreditation frameworks, and a partnership with global hubs, such as the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. AfroChampions, co-steered by President Obasanjo and President Johnson Sirleaf, brings political networks across Africa and the world, continental convening authority, and curricular content developed through the Sankoree Institute’s curated library of African negotiation episodes that forms the initial spark of SIGN’s pedagogical method.
Gabriel UZABAKIRIHO/ KIGALI TIMES