Empowering African entrepreneurs: An interview with Somachi Chris-Asoluka, CEO Tony Elumelu Foundation Somachi Chris-Asoluka, the newly appointed CEO of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, recently spoke with Business Insider Africa at the GITEX Africa inaugural event. With a decade-long dedication to transforming Africa through entrepreneurship, the Tony Elumelu Foundation has chosen Chris-Asoluka to lead its impactful vision. Despite her young age, Chris-Asoluka’s rapid career ascent
Creativity and ingenuity in technology are driving a new generation of African innovators. It’s well known that African countries are developing at a rapid rate. According to the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects report, six of these countries are ranked as the fastest-growing economies in the world. This development is especially apparent in technology fields where creative inventions, tech hacks and innovations are finding
Africa Doing More, Not Enough, to Finance YouthNovember 11, 2019 It is too little to make much of a difference, admitted Akinwumi A. Adesina (PhD), president of the AfDB, addressing the media today in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the second edition of the Africa Investment Forum. The challenge is enormous. Close to 10 million young women and men join the labor market every year
VIEWPOINTMaking the Invisible VisibleContributed by Reeta Roy(Ed.’s Note: Reeta Roy is the President and CEO of Mastercard Foundation)9 November 2019By ContributorThe future of work may be the defining issue of our time. Africa will fast become the world’s workforce and 375 million young Africans will enter labor markets by 2030. The question of how they will find meaningful, dignified livelihoods is on the mind of
Ashoka In December 2019, The Impact! Africa Summit, hosted by Ashoka and the British Council, convened at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies around the topic “Collaborative Finance for Social Innovation.” The two-day conference brought together entrepreneurs, institutions, NGOs, academia and international agencies from across Africa and beyond to share experiences, challenges and possible solutions for building a vibrant social economy.– Attendees gather at the
According to UNICEF, by 2050, the population of Africa will grow to 2.4 billion, the vast majority of which will be under the age of 35. In order to cater to this mass of people, the continent will have to rely on catalytic social innovation in different spheres of its economy, from education at the top all the way to water management. What Is
Science, technology and innovation will be at the heart of Africa’s recovery from the devastating coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the continent’s ability to create sustainable jobs, according to Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Vera Songwe. In remarks at the beginning of a five-day virtual COVID-19 Africa Innovation and Investment Forum 2020, Songwe said Africa needs innovations to drive homegrown solutions
By Muhammad Nabil, Partners and Startups Strategy Lead: Microsoft 4Afrika There’s an old and somewhat overused saying attributed to Winston Churchill that is nevertheless appropriate in these uncertain times: never let a good crisis go to waste. A global pandemic certainly qualifies as a crisis, but what good can we generate from this exceptional challenge? In my work with Microsoft 4Afrika I have had
Photo: Andela / Mohini Ufeli Tolu Komolafe, co-founder of the Ladies in Tech organization based in Lagos, Nigeria. Photo: Andela / Mohini Ufeli On the surface, sub-Saharan Africa boasts the world’s highest rate of women entrepreneurs, at 27%. The MasterCard Index of Women Entrepreneurs 2017 listed two African countries, Uganda (34.8%) and Botswana (34.6%), as having the highest percentage of women entrepreneurs globally. But dig a
By Asegid Getachew (assistant professor and research scholar at Andhra University. He can be reached at asewoldeam@gmail.com) Businesses operate in a very competitive and dynamic environment. Technological processes, product concepts and designs, and consumer tastes keep changing with time. To continue as a going concern amid such a change, businesses need to keep adapting with the pace of the dynamism. One strategy that businesses need to