…Calls on African
Leaders to creat Youth Business Champions, not Martyrs
This week, fifteen delegations representing the United
Nations and several countries, including Germany, Canada, France, Qatar and
Algeria took part in the Tunisia government’s International Investment
Conference dubbed “Tunisia 2020.”
In the last 5 years the Tunisian economy has struggled
following a democratic uprising which ushered in weak growth and economic
uncertainty. The conference sought to attract direct investment by assembling
global financial leaders and institutions.
During the event, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Chairman and
billionaire philanthropist Tony O. Elumelu, CON called for a shared approach to
African development, calling it, “the only route to achieving sustainable
economic development, political stability and economic prosperity on the
African continent.”
He encouraged youth engagement and pointed to
entrepreneurship as the most secure route to sustainable development, saying,
“it is imperative for African Leaders to implement growth policies that
would see the youths as catalyst to development, thus avoiding the
socio-economic crisis as experienced in Tunisia and other countries in Africa
in past years.”
Mr. Elumelu promised to support Tunisia’s economic
transformation by investing in young aspiring entrepreneurs through his Tony
Elumelu Foundation — the leading philanthropy in Africa championing
entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs across the continent as the catalyst for
sustainable growth in Africa. He pledged to help catapult Tunisian
entrepreneurs into the next generation of top African business leaders, through
the $100 Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme.
Other conference attendees included: Prime Minister of
Tunisia, Youssef Chahed, Prime Minister of Algeria, Abdelmalek Sellal, President
and Vice-President of European Investment Bank, Werner Hoyer and Andrew
McDowell, Chairman of the Arab Fund For Economic and Social Development, Abdul
Latif Yousif al-Hamd.
In his opening speech, President of Tunisia, Mr. Beji Caid
Essebsi said that the two-day conference, which was attended by more than 2,000
delegates, was designed to generate up to $30 billion for 145 projects over the
next four years. All toward a vision of ensure the North African nation can
stem flow of foreign direct investment out of the country’s ailing economy.
On his part, Mr. Elumelu insisted that to stimulate economic
growth in Tunisia and Africa as a whole, his economic philosophy of
Africapitalism provides a blueprint, saying that African unity should be about
shared challenges and experiences, shared ideas and goals, and bonds of blood
and trade.
“I believe that shared prosperity can only be achieved when
the government and private sector work in shared purpose to advance the
economic and social development of nations and the continent.” he said.
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