Happy Africa future!

Today, May 25, 2020 we are celebrating the 57th anniversary of Africa’s freedom and unity and I wish all my sisters and brothers, lions and lionesses, wherever you are on the continent and around the world, a Happy Africa Day!

This day reminds us the dreams and the vision of the men and women who fought side by side to liberate our continent from colonization and oppression and recover its dignity. It reminds us the power of independence, unity and solidarity .

This day reminds us where we have been and gives us the opportunity to reflect about where we are and where we want to go.

Today, we should also pay tribute to the men and women who are still fighting every day to build an Africa free of poverty, corruption, war and alienation.

Now, we are in 2020, almost 60 years after the Organization of African Unity was established with the aim to improve the livelihood of African people and Haile Selassie then pledged, “May this convention Union last 1,000 years”.

A lot has been done but several long-standing challenges remain and are holding back our progress. Indeed, we still have a lot to do to develop our beloved Africa. It is now in our hand to have new dreams, new vision and ambitions for our continent and move it forward. It is time to create a new development path, harnessing the potential of our resources and people. It is time to create a new pan-Africanism and prepare a better future for our children.

It is our collective duty, African men and women, boys and girls, to write a new chapter of Africa where wealth and inclusion go hand on hand, where governance, leadership and responsibility are compatible, where innovation and technology can create jobs and allow African to feed their family and live with dignity, an Africa where our youth reconnect with hope and pride.

Africa is a land of opportunity and freedom.

Africa is blessed with a rich bounty of natural resources. The continent holds around 30% of the world's known mineral reserves. These include cobalt, uranium, diamonds and gold, as well as significant oil and gas reserves. Africa is home to the world’s largest free trade area and a 1.2 billion-person market, and it would benefit enormously from a continental approach to solve the low economic density, long distance to markets, and some regional divisions.

With Coronavirus crisis consequences, Africa is at a crossroads. With a still world’s less people infected by Covid-19, world’s youngest population, and its enormous potential for economic transformation and growth, there is hope for a better future. At the same time, the continent is expected to be the region worst affected by the economic impact of this pandemic. Reason why it is time for Africa to transform its social, political and economic landscape in order to reduce poverty, improve productivity, and reduce the risk of climate change at once.

A few fundamentals can help underpin an inclusive and sustainable transformation for the continent.

1.     Invest in our People

Investing in our people is the most important long-term investment we can make for our continent's future prosperity and quality of life. Our Human capital is undoubtedly one of the key drivers of a sustainable growth and development.

Education is the premise of progress and it fosters people capabilities and capacities, it makes individuals become stronger leaders who are more productive, innovative and adaptable to a fast-changing environment.

With Covid-19 bringing us multiple challenges, there is no better time to call on local and international institutions as well as the private sector to direct more investment into the long term and sustainable development of individuals. This includes learning both hard skills (technical skills, knowledge and behaviours) and soft skills (self-leadership, confidence, motivation, resilience and mindset).

Our burgeoning youth population represents our greatest asset and can determine the development trajectory of the continent over the next decades. We have to provide them with the means to grow as individuals, we need to help them in expanding their capabilities, we must teach them who they are and who they can become. We must empower them with the right skills, knowledge and tools so they can enhance their personal lives and ensure their contribution toward a prosperous continent. And we must make sure that either our boys and girls have equal access to education and opportunities. We will not develop this continent if we live 50% of our population behind.

2.     Seek for better governance and leadership models

The world is getting more and more interconnected, more and more complex, volatile and uncertain. Hence the need for new leadership and governance models adapted to the development process of Africa.

Here I am not referring only to the public sector responsibility and accountability. I genuinely believe that every African must play its partition, whether living in the continent or in the diaspora. Whether small of big, we can all make a difference and influence our human, social, economic and politic policies and regulations. We can all raise our voices, share our concern about exclusion, corruption, violence and other evils that are pulling our continent down. 

We must all focus our attention on education, public health, social justice and gender equality. Everything we can do to improve access to these fundamentals will significantly enhance African lives.

Most young people in Africa are hungry to learn and to realize their potential. And they look for models and mentors to inspire them and help them navigate the complex life challenges they face.

3.     Unleash the power of innovation and technology to create jobs

One of the major issues we are facing in the continent is unemployment. Unemployment indirectly or directly causes poverty, inequality, frustration and violence.

Each time I read the news and find out my brothers and sisters who prefer to take the risk of leaving the continent to find a better life abroad, at the risk of their lives, it breaks my heart. No one deliberately take the risk of leaving their country, their family and friends, if they can live in peace and with dignity in their home country.

Innovation is important to help our continent grow and develop. And for the first time in our history, we have all the resources, capabilities and technologies to fix our multiple burdens and make this continent one of the most prosperous on hearth. If we combine modern technology to find local solutions to our local problems, we will maximize the impact of innovation in the continent.

As an example, Covid-19 has emphasized the multiple existing solutions to expand education and healthcare to a larger number of people. Provided you have access to electricity and internet, you can have access to a teacher in Cape Town, Abidjan, Cambridge or Boston. During the pandemic, we have seen drones delivering tests and medicine in the most difficult places of access in the continent.

One said that necessity is the mother of innovation, and it’s amazing to see the creative energy deployed across the continent to respond to the pandemic crisis. If we manage to create pan-African structures that promote and incentivize innovation, knowledge and resource sharing, facilitates capital access and provide expertise to support entrepreneurs, the Return On Investment could be exponential.

Africa’s history has value. It has always been about resilience towards adversity. It is time to unite our forces and write a new promising and bright chapter of our history.

Alone we go faster, together we go further

Happy Africa Future!