From Bafia to the Senate: who is Senator Amina Gerba?

Few parliamentarians arrive in Ottawa with a quarter-century of Canada–Africa deal-making behind them. In a February 2, 2026 interview with the Senate’s SenCAplus magazine, Senator Amina Gerba, who represents the Rigaud division of Quebec, traced the path that led her there.

Roots and arrival

She was born in Bafia, Cameroon, into a family of 19 children, six of them girls; her parents were farmers. A cousin enabled her to start school at six — a decision her father had opposed. She came to Canada in 1986 with her husband, who had received a scholarship to study in Montréal, and returned to school at a CEGEP. She later earned a bachelor’s degree and an MBA at ESG UQAM, the business school that hosted her for a public lecture in April 2026.

The entrepreneur

Before her appointment to the Senate in 2021, she founded several businesses, including a factory producing cosmetics made from African shea butter, a consulting firm, and a non-profit organization that helps set up partnerships between North American and African companies. In 2003 she launched Forum Africa, which became Forum Afrique Expansion in 2017.

Her Senate agenda

Senator Gerba sits on the Senate foreign affairs and fisheries committees and is a member of the Canada-Africa Group of Senators and the Parliamentary Black Caucus. She names three priorities:

• Strengthening Canada–Africa relations so that Canada actively engages with and invests in Africa.
• Bill S-215, which would designate November as National Immigration Month.
• Access to government procurement for Black entrepreneurs.

She argues that Canada starts with real advantages on the continent — a strong reputation, the fact that it was never a colonial power there, and bilingualism — and that Africa’s population of more than 1.5 billion includes an emerging middle class of over 330 million. She has advocated for a Canada–Africa business council and hopes Canada will finalize a structured partnership with the African Continental Free Trade Area.

Why it matters for the CACT community

Senator Gerba’s career is a template for what CACT calls trade in the broad sense: products, services, knowledge and relationships moving in both directions. Her procurement priority speaks to Black-owned businesses here at home, while her Africa work targets the markets many members already know. The posts tagged Senator Amina Gerba on this blog follow how that agenda is advancing in Parliament.