Africa to host first-ever SIGNIS World Congress in Kigali

Africa will, for the first time, host the SIGNIS World Congress, with Kigali, Rwanda, set to welcome global Catholic communicators from 3 to 8 August 2026, expected to draw media professionals, Church leaders and communication experts from across the world.

The announcement was made in Accra by the President of SIGNIS Africa, Rev. Fr. Walter C. Ihejirika, Ph.D., during the opening of the 2025 Union Catholique Africaine de la Presse (UCAP) Congress at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration.

“May I use this opportunity to inform you that for the first time in the history of SIGNIS, our continent will be hosting the SIGNIS World Congress in Kigali, Rwanda from the 3rd to the 8th of August, 2026,” Fr. Ihejirika said.

The SIGNIS Africa President explained that the announcement follows recent engagements with the leadership of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), where plans for the Congress were presented to the Church in Africa. Extending a special invitation, he added, “I wish to extend a prior invitation to the members of UCAP to be part of that August event.”

Beyond this, Fr. Ihejirika highlighted ongoing discussions aimed at integrating UCAP more closely with SIGNIS. This move, he noted stems from a 2016 directive from the Vatican, which approved the canonical statutes of SIGNIS and recognised it as the official Catholic Association for Communication.

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“Within the last year, I have held meetings with the leadership of UCAP to examine modalities of this integration. This Congress will afford us a good opportunity to further deepen our discussions and possibly reach a conclusion,” he stated.

Commending UCAP’s leadership for the organisation of the week-long gathering, he noted the relevance of its deliberations, saying, “The theme and topics are well apt to the current needs of the Church and the society. I am very confident that we will reap bountiful intellectual, spiritual and social fruits at the end.”