Speakers

Francisco Ferreira dos Santos

Francisco Ferreira dos Santos has served as a Board Member of the JFS Group since 2005 and represents the fourth generation of the founding family, continuing an uninterrupted entrepreneurial legacy that began in 1897. Founded on Mozambique Island, the JFS Group has been part of the country's economic history for more than a century and today operates across the automotive, real estate and rural economy sectors through an integrated ecosystem that combines agriculture, agro-industry, rural commerce, solar energy, digital solutions, research and innovation.
He believes that sustainable development cannot simply be decreed or imported. It must be built with communities and for communities, demonstrated through practical action, and scaled through knowledge, partnerships and leadership by example. Drawing on more than a century of continuous engagement alongside Mozambique's rural communities, he advocates that businesses should be at the heart of sustainable transformation and that the private sector is the primary driver of economic prosperity, social inclusion and ecosystem regeneration.
Francisco is Chairman of the Mozambique Cotton and Oilseeds Association (AAOM), a Board Member of the Industrial Association of Mozambique (AIMO), and Chair of the Private Sector Advisory Committee of the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), the intergovernmental organization that brings together the world's leading cotton-producing, consuming and processing countries.
Throughout his career, he has focused on developing inclusive agricultural value chains, promoting resource-based industrialisation, and advancing regenerative agriculture as a means of creating prosperity, strengthening rural communities and enhancing the competitiveness of Mozambique's economy. He currently leads a platform that works with approximately 40,000 smallholder farmers and contributes to improving the lives of around 200,000 people across Mozambique.