Uche Usim, Abuja
Presidents of various African nations yesterday charged the youths to brace up to become leaders, technocrats and entrepreneurs in the various disciplines.
They argued that only sound brains from the continent could grow its fortunes.
The leaders made the declaration at a panel hosted by CNN’s Fareed Zakaria at the 2019 Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP) in Abuja.
In his speech at the event, the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, said that African youths possess enormous talents and strength to transform the continent.
He hailed the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) for establishing TEEP as the lives and countries of thousands of beneficiaries have been touched in various positive ways.
The vice president described Africa as a landscape emboldened by multitudes of young people who are refusing to wallow in self-pity or frustration, but realized that conquering the challenges of their environments are the milestones for outstanding success.
“We have young men and women who have come to fully understand the transformational power of technology in the 21st Century.
“But our continent continues to be defined by unsavoury and unwholesome stories, which do not often accurately represent the reality of life and opportunity. The people in this room are the perfect and long-awaited counterpoints to those one-dimensional narratives of Africa that have sadly gained ground over the years. “Outside on the streets of every village, town and city are many more individual embodiments of the potential of Africa. But we can change that story. We must fund young entrepreneurs and provide opportunities for capacity building. Our school curriculums must emphasize not just stem, but critical thinking and entrepreneurship. And the promise of entrepreneurship banks must be kept,” Osinbajo saidd.
Also speaking at the event, the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame said that the first major steps into placing Africa at the top echelon of global business was to positively change the mindset of the younger generation, just as his government has done and got higher ranking than Japan in the World Bank’s ease of doing business categorisation.
He said: “The first thing is to deal with the minds of the people. People will sit back and expect things to happen. It won’t happen. You must work for it.
“In Rwanda, we looked for ways of doing things differently. We focused on making people understand that development and prosperity are things we must achieve together,” he explained.
In his opening statement, President Macky Sall of Senegal said that there was an urgent need to counter the perception that the risk level in doing business in Africa is very high in order for the continent to attract relevant offshore investments.
In his remarks, the President of African Development Bank, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, charged the continent to see itself to have fully arisen and ready to take its rightful place in global events.
He, however, lamented that poverty level was still high, but added that the continent possessed what it takes to change the narrative. Sidi Ould Tah, president, Arab Bank for Development said that the focus for African leaders should be youth empowerment and evolving enduring partnerships across the continent while Koens Doens, deputy director-general, European Commission said that Africans have young entrepreneurial spirit that should be well harnessed.
Doens assured that the Commission would earmark huge funds for TEF to scale up this business and entrepreneurs. The President of Afreximbank Bank, Prof Benedict Oramah harped on establishing and sustaining different levels of cooperation across Africa.
He also called for robust investment in infrastructure and the reorientation of African youths to reflect the realities of the 21st Century.