Africa’s future lies with its young entrepreneurs

Strength in numbers should be continent’s mantra for sustainable economic growth

THE AU AGENDA 2063 is a vision that should live constantly in the hearts and minds of all Africans.

The more I peruse its content, the more I’m convinced that the continent’s economic future lies solely in the hands of its youth.

Three weeks ago I travelled to Togo and had the unique opportunity to meet in private with President Faure Gnassingbé at the State House.

Discussions included the opportunities that exist for young African entrepreneurs and how best to leverage youth potential to grow the continent and his country.

He envisions a youth that is in touch with tomorrow who have an entrepreneurial spirit, and that the future of his country is in its hands.

My visit to Togo also included interacting with various ecosystem stakeholders such as structures that are supporting the development of start-ups and small businesses.

In addition, the principal of the University of Lomé shared the proactive reason for revising its curriculum.

Introduced this year, the new curriculum’s content is now in perfect alignment with a “real-world environment” as opposed to teachings, which hold little value for working-related opportunity and its benefits. This is a strong, down-to-earth, reality-check approach that I really applaud.

The advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution forces us to revisit the way we see the world and ensure that available opportunities in the market match the skills that our youth are equipped with.

What’s more, I was very pleasantly surprised at just how many young Togolese are self-starters, shaping their own destinies and driving positive change in their respective communities.

The co-operative mindset seems to thrive in this country, and sees people come together and build a future for themselves. This is the type of Africa we all want. Africans knowing that the future can only be secured and enjoyed by working together.

The Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement(AFCTA), which the AU expects to formally launch in July, encourages member states to liberalise trade relations with each other, reduce tariffs among African countries and develop mechanisms to monitor the application of non-tariff barriers by some member states.

Yet, I would also like to see more integration of African nations. We have progressed quite rapidly on the visa regime (I cannot remember the last time I had to apply for a visa before visiting an African nation) and some countries now have visas on arrival, but the issue of integration should also focus on the commuting of Africans.

This still remains a challenge where Africans have to fly via Europe in order to come back to Africa, or have to air transit to two or three other African countries before reaching their final destination.

This should be better co-ordinated, with a railroad network that crisscrosses the continent for freedom of movement.

It is encouraging to see that last week the African Development Bank and the Economic Community of West African States Commission have signed an agreement for a study into a 1 000km highway linking the Ivory Coast’s commercial capital Abidjan to Lagos in Nigeria, marking a new step in building regional integration and trade.

The proposed Abidjan-Lagos corridor highway, a six-lane (dual threelane) motorway, will connect the countries via Ghana (Accra), Togo (Lomé) and Benin (Cotonou).

African entrepreneurs should be given prime attention on the agenda of Africa’s development. Those that develop market-worthy ideas should be given the opportunity to test them with their peers in other African countries and collaborate with them towards making their ideas a reality.

Capital and programmes should also be provided to support their initiatives, similar to what the French government is doing on the Digital Africa project by allocating €60 million (R951m) to support young African digital entrepreneurs. We need more African agencies to follow suit.

“Strength in numbers” should be Africa’s mantra for sustainable economic power, now and into the future. So we need to collaborate. Disintegration will only divide us and not unite us.

The Africa Investment Forum of the African Development Bank has also set in motion the drive to promote investments, develop Africa and ensure that the future shines bright across the continent.

Talking statistics, it’s predicted that Africa’s population will increase to more than 840 million by 2050 and the continent will also have the youngest population on the planet.

It is imperative that start-up role-players and enablers are better co-ordinated to facilitate job creation and opportunities for small- and medium-sized businesses.

Over the next five years, almost half of the world’s fastest-growing economies will be located on the Africa continent, growing at an average rate of 5 percent.

The African business-to-business spending will reach $4.2 trillion (R59trln) in 2030, an increase from $2.6trln in 2015.

Business funding will be about $915.3 billion in agriculture and agricultural processing, $666.3bn in manufacturing, $784.5bn in construction, utilities and transportation, $665.1bn in wholesale and retail, $357.6bn in resources, $249.3bn in banking and insurance, and $79.5bn in telecoms and information technology.

This growth in domestic consumer demand combined with more business-to-business spending will allow both large businesses and SMEs to gain the most under the AFCTA.

As the profile of African businesses grows on continental and world stages, African household consumers may be more inclined to buy African products and services to support continental development and growth.

However, this will depend on how well businesses are able to engage in the deal’s implementation.

Very limited reliable data reflects how various ecosystems enablers build and contribute to this diversification.

The AU agenda 2063 should be seen as a unique opportunity to recreate the African narrative and ensure that we rid ourselves and young go-getters of the dreadful “great ideas going nowhere” syndrome.

Let’s focus on encouraging high levels of support, co-operation, youth entrepreneurship, investments and wealth creation.

Lastly, we must discourage the precedent set in Nigeria last week where the general election was postponed hours before it was scheduled to start.

For a country with more than 190 million people and 40 percent youth unemployment, where at least 11 million jobs are needed each year to curb the unemployment crisis, the postponement and lack of readiness brings distrust and flies in the face of all the work being done by various agencies to attract global investors closer to the table.