Many African youths are still engaged in illegal migration due largely to unemployment and poor living conditions in most African countries. There are daily reports of hundreds of these migrants drowning as they attempt to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, while some others perish in the harsh Sahara Desert route for those who prefer that route to Europe through the embattled northern African country of Libya.
But a Nigerian, Mr. Tony Elumelu, the Chairman of United Bank of Africa (UBA) is determined to use his foundation, Tony Elumelu Foundation, to change this worrisome narrative by seeking ways of empowering these young Africans.
Speaking at the fifth edition of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Forum held in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, from July 26 to 27, Mr. Elumelu reiterated the urgency in creating jobs on the continent to catalyse Africa’s development.
According to Elumelu, extremism is a product of poverty and joblessness, while poverty anywhere is a threat to everyone everywhere and that if African leaders understand the reason and rationale for the youths to succeed, “they will do everything they can to support them”.
He also reiterated the role of technology as a key enabler in accelerating development, citing TEFConnect, the digital networking platform for African entrepreneurs launched by his foundation in 2018. With over 500,000 registered users, the hub provides a platform for entrepreneurs to network and forge business partnerships regardless of their locations.
In his speech at the event, the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, urged African business community to put capital on the line for the young people of Africa.
In his clarion call during the panel discussion at the event, Adesina said that it was time for African governments to begin to shift from youth empowerment to youth investment.
The panel session, which was moderated by CNN host Fareed Zakaria, was a key session at Africa’s largest-ever gathering of entrepreneurs. The audience included Rwandan President Paul Kagame, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, President Macky Sall of Senegal and Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Adesina proposed the establishment of youth entrepreneurship and investment banks to meet the growing and urgent needs of youth entrepreneurs. “A bank you can walk into where they see assets not liabilities, where they have faith and confidence in young people,” he said. He also advocated for the de-risking of loans to youth businesses.
He recalled that Tony Elumelu founded the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) in 2010 to remove the obstacles that African entrepreneurs face as they grow and develop their start-ups into small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and their SMEs into national growth companies, and in turn their national growth companies into African multinationals.
Adesina disclosed that the AfDB has been leading continental efforts to create employment and improve livelihoods for the youth and that it has approved $7.5 million to fund enterprise support organizations such as TEF and other incubators, accelerators and financial institutions.
He assured that the TEF entrepreneurship programme also aligns with the goals of the African Development Bank, whose Jobs for Youth in Africa Strategy aims at supporting African countries to create 25 million jobs and empower 50 million young people by 2025.
Speaking in the same vein, the Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, called for the creation of opportunities for capacity building for young entrepreneurs in Africa,
Osinbajo noted that on the streets of every village and city in Africa, there are many individual embodiments of the potential of the continent and that nurturing young entrepreneurs will change some of the false and some of the true, but unfortunate narratives of Africa.
The Nigerian Vice President stressed the need to realign the educational structure of various countries on the continent in that direction. According to him, school curriculums should not just be about science, technology, and mathematics among others, but include ‘critical thinking and entrepreneurship.
Osinbajo, however, agreed that on the part of the Nigerian government, the promises of establishing entrepreneurship banks must be kept.
Recounting a few of the many stories of the businesses and lives transformed by the Tony Elumelu Foundation and its various initiatives, Osinbajo said: “We have Mavis Nduchwa, who trained for the hospitality industry, and went on to a career as a TV presenter, and is today a successful farmer with the goal of feeding her native country, Botswana.
“A decade ago, a Nigerian, Zion Oshiobugie, looked ahead at life as a domestic servant for a family member. Today, he is the proud CEO of a consulting company based in the same city where he started out as a domestic servant.
“There is Mohammed Daoufhi of Morocco, founder of a 3-D printing company that produces affordable artificial limbs. Every day, he makes it happen for someone, he gives life to someone who had thought all life was lost when they lost their limb.
“Cameroon’s Michel Nkuindija actually tells, and retells stories for a living through his company, Noohkema Game Studios, which develops video games that are based on traditional Africa myths and legends. His goal is to change the way Africa is perceived globally, and to give young Africans a reason to be proud of their cultural identities.
“Across the continent in Uganda, Joel Cherop is a farmer, pushing the boundaries of agriculture using irrigation technologies, through the Atari River Integrated Irrigation Initiative Limited (ARII). Every day, he makes a difference in farming in his country.
“From the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lino Alain Muniono, used seed capital to start an architectural firm, and Jose Kimoalou founded Wapimed, a health tech company providing quality healthcare across communities in the DRC.
“Benin Republic’s Vital Sounouvou is promoting trade across Africa with his fintech start-up, Exportunity, a virtual market that is now directly supported by a leading African banking institution, UBA. In the age of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), there is perhaps no bigger or better opportunity to be exploring right now.”
According to him, they are the hundreds who are also here and these stories are just a few of the thousands told and experienced by entrepreneurs, whose lives have been touched and transformed by the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP).
The highlight of the two-day event was the Presidential Debates, moderated by Fareed Zakaria, and it focused on charting the way forward towards the eradication of poverty in Africa through job creation. The public sector leaders on the panel included Paul Kagame, President, Republic of Rwanda; Macky Sall, President, Republic of Senegal; Félix Tshisekedi, President, Democratic Republic of Congo; Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Vice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria; and Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda, Prime Minister, Republic of Uganda, representing the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni. The event also featured a question and answer session moderated by Fareed Rafiq Zakaria, host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS, in which Osinbajo, Kagame, Sall, Tshisekedi and Rugunda fielded questions from the audience and the participants from their countries.
Responding to a question on what the Nigerian government was doing to boost entrepreneurship, Vice President Osinbajo said that the Nigerian Government was investing over $24 billion in infrastructure, the highest in the history of the country.
The bulk of the investment, according to him, is on the railway because ‘’we very strongly believe that we must connect the country”.
In his response, President Kagame said that Rwanda’s high rating in World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business was achieved by working on the psyche of the people and doing the right things.
He said that Rwandans were made to believe that they could do it on their own.
On his part, Rugunda said that women in Uganda and Africa in general were disadvantaged by cultural issues and that the affirmative action was needed to empower more African women.
Healthcare also played a dominant role in the conversations as healthcare leaders in the public and private sectors discussed “The Role of Healthcare in Economic Transformation”, which was the theme during the plenary session.
The speakers on the panel included Dr. Awele Elumelu, Trustee, Tony Elumelu Foundation and Founder/CEO, Avon Medical Practice; Aisha Buhari, First Lady, Federal Republic of Nigeria; Djena Kaba Condé, First Lady of Guinea; Keïta Aminata Maiga, First Lady, Mali and Gilles Carbonnier, Vice President, International Committee of the Red Cross.
The event was attended by over 5,000 participants from 54 African countries, including representatives of the 7,521 beneficiaries of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme.
More than 60 global speakers from the public and private sectors across three continents participated in interactive Masterclasses, plenary sessions and debates geared towards generating ideas and defining concrete steps Africa should take to empower its youth and accelerate the continent’s development.
Some of the guests seized the opportunity to interact directly with young budding entrepreneurs from across the 20 African countries where United Bank for Africa has its presence, who exhibited their innovative products and solutions at the UBA Marketplace, powered by the global bank.
With the talkshop over, millions of young African entrepreneurs are anxiously waiting for their opportunity to join the scheme, which can only be possible if the various African countries and donor agencies heed the clarion call of Dr, Adesina of the AfDB to put capital on the line for the young people of Africa and begin to shift from youth empowerment to youth investment.
GIK/APA