The appointment of Massad Boulos as a Senior Advisor to the President for Africa marks a definitive shift in United States engagement, signalling a preference for commercial acumen and direct business experience over traditional diplomatic and developmental expertise. Boulos’s role, which he assumed in April 2025 alongside his duties as Senior Advisor on Arab and Middle Eastern Affairs, places him as the State Department’s most senior official focused on the continent.
Born in Lebanon, Boulos’s pivotal connection to Africa is rooted in a decades-long business career. After completing his education, Boulos moved to Nigeria and became the Chief Executive Officer of SCOA Nigeria PLC, a company specializing in trucking and heavy machinery dealership that operates as part of the Fadoul Group, a business conglomerate based in West Africa. He is a naturalized American citizen. This extensive history in the region, managing operations across multiple borders and navigating diverse regulatory environments for over 27 years, provides him with a rare, commercial-focused vantage point on African economic realities. His experience leading companies that build roads, move goods, and sustain supply chains aligns perfectly with the administration’s stated goal of anchoring US-Africa relations in shared economic opportunities rather than conflict.
Boulos’s appointment is strategic, driven by his personal ties to the administration—he is the father-in-law of the President’s daughter, Tiffany Trump. This relationship has granted him unique access and influence. However, what makes him the advisor on African affairs is his transactional philosophy rooted in business and his specific diplomatic focus on securing critical mineral access.
His first major diplomatic tour in April 2025 included the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, and Uganda. The stated goals were twofold: to drive momentum on peace agreements in the eastern DRC and to promote US private sector investment in the region. Boulos subsequently announced that the DRC had agreed upon a path forward to develop a minerals agreement allowing US private firms to work in the country, emphasizing the administration’s focus on linking security interests with economic relationships. He views the relationship as one of cooperation grounded in mutual interest, often stating that the goal is to encourage and facilitate US private sector investments in these countries.
Boulos’s role reinforces the overall policy shift towards a highly transactional approach, where security assistance and investment are seen as reciprocal tools to advance US economic and national security interests, particularly in the race for crucial natural resources. This focus on commerce and security, guided by a businessman with deep roots in Nigeria, defines the new direction of American diplomacy across the continent.
