22 September 2026 | .
Excellencies, Fellow Heads of State and Government,
Ambassador Marie-Antoinette Rose-Quatre, CEO of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM),
Mrs Hannah Awuku, Executive Director, Forward Africa Leaders Symposium (FALS),
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me to thank the Forward Africa Leaders' Symposium and the African Peer Review Mechanism, together with all their partners, for bringing us together at a moment when Africa is not just talking about its future anymore but building it.
115 islands.
Roughly 125,000 people.
That is Seychelles!
And for us, connectivity is not a luxury; access to markets is not a given; and mobility is essential to creating opportunities for our people.
Let me start with digital economies.
A digital economy delivers shared prosperity only when it is built for inclusion, not simply efficiency.
In Seychelles, digital government and digital payments exist to ensure that someone on a small outer island has the same access to services and opportunities as someone in the capital.
That is why, earlier this year, my Government licensed Starlink to operate across our islands. For communities on our smaller, more remote coral islands, where laying undersea fibre has not always been practical, satellite connectivity means inclusion rather than exclusion from the digital economy.
For a Small Island Developing State like Seychelles, this matters enormously. Our economy depends heavily on tourism and services, and increasingly, digital markets are helping us connect our businesses, our people and our services to the wider world.
That is the standard we should hold ourselves to across Africa and the Caribbean: digital transformation must expand opportunity, not create another divide. Digital identity and digital services must reach the fisherman as readily as the business owner, and the rural entrepreneur as readily as the multinational corporation.
Then there is market access.
For small island nations, market access can determine whether an economy simply survives or has room to grow. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA) allows Seychelles to reach beyond what our size alone would permit. Our growing cooperation with the Caribbean also offers another opportunity for smaller economies to connect and expand their markets.
But agreements alone are not enough. We need reliable shipping corridors, digital trade platforms and efficient customs systems to help small producers reach regional and global markets.
None of this, not connectivity, not market access is possible without infrastructure, and infrastructure requires capital at a scale that small states cannot mobilise alone.
Undersea cables, data centres and renewable energy are not simply infrastructure; they are investments in the foundations of the digital economy. This is where development finance institutions and investors in this room are not observers, but partners.
On migration governance, our youth should have the freedom to see the world and the opportunity to build a life at home. For that choice to be real, we must create the jobs, platforms and digital opportunities that allow young people to participate in the global economy without having to leave home to find one. People should migrate because they want to see the world, not because they see no future at home.
Finally, what connects digital transformation, market access and migration is governance.
The APRM reminds us that sustainable development depends on good governance, strong institutions, accountability and trust. And Seychelles has sought to build its reputation on exactly that: good governance, credibility and openness as foundations of our sustainable development.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
For Seychelles, geography has always shaped our opportunities. But technology, connectivity and access to markets have already given us new ways to overcome the limits of distance and scale. Our task now is to build on these gains, so they translate into better livelihoods for our people, stronger economies and real opportunities for our future generations.
And that is what shared prosperity should mean: creating opportunities and making sure they reach those who need them most.
I thank you.
