The Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has said the innovativeness of young entrepreneurs is the reason the country and Africa as a whole will work.
He made the pronouncement just as business moguls in the country stressed the need for the private and public sector to work together towards the development of the nation.
Speaking at the 3rd annual Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) Entrepreneurship Forum which hosted more than 1,300 participants from 54 African countries in Lagos, Osinbajo said the generation of young people will do the exceptional.
“You are the reason Africa will work. The length and breadth of display of talent have shown that there is indeed hope,” he said.
On his part, the Chairman, Honeywell Group, Oba Otudeko, said “the private sector working with the public sector can achieve so much by way of development. African governments should move beyond rhetorics and implement their ideas.”
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Addressing the 3rd cohort of TEF entrepreneurs, founder of the foundation, who is also the Chairman of the United Bank for Africa, Tony Elumelu, CON, spoke of his belief, that a vibrant African-led private sector was the key to unlocking Africa’s economic and social potential.
“Africa’s development, which must be private-sector led and entrepreneurially driven, will have at its heart, young African innovators and their transformative ideas. Only they will create the millions of jobs Africa needs. The Forum has brought together Africa’s most important developmental force, her young entrepreneurs who will become catalysts for Africa’s economic liberation.
“We have united the African entrepreneurship ecosystem, putting the entrepreneurs at centre stage. I want to thank those heads of government and other key policymakers, who have supported our firm belief that the private sector is the engine for growth and the private sector players, who are models of our philosophy of Africapitalism – the idea that business will drive change and that change must deliver economic and social wealth,” he explained.
Launched in 2015, the Forum was born out of the Foundation’s $100 million commitment to identify, train, mentor and fund 10,000 African entrepreneurs across sectors, including Agriculture, Technology, Healthcare, Fashion and Energy/Power Generation, over a decade, through the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme.
The two-day event, which involved plenary panels and master classes, provided the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurs with a platform to network and connect with business leaders, policymakers and investors.