The
Chairman of Heirs Holdings and Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation,
Tony O. Elumelu, CON, has called on African leaders and development
institutions to help address the deepening job and employment crisis
bedevilling the continent by lending support and paying more attention
towards the agricultural sector, creating access to electricity and
developing entrepreneurship.
Elumelu
who said this while speaking on the theme ‘How do we create 10 million
jobs by 2020?’ at the Youth Connekt Africa Summit in Rwanda yesterday,
opined that access to electricity and increased focus in the
agricultural sector would enhance entrepreneurship and tackle the
challenge of unemployment through the creation of more jobs in the
continent.
Elumelu,
a passionate advocate of entrepreneurship and Africapitalism, also
upheld the notion that the private sector has the responsibility to play
the lead role in contributing to job creation in Africa, and cited the
example of the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) and its various investments
in these key areas, adding that this is visible from the $100million
commitment towards supporting African entrepreneurs over the years.
He
said, “Today we have businesses in 20 African countries and employ
30,000 people directly and 50,000 people indirectly. Agriculture, access
to electricity and entrepreneurship have the potential to create
more jobs in Africa”.
The
TEF boss stated that Africa can be self-reliant and self-dependent if
the right infrastructure and government support are put in place to
boost these sectors. In this regard, he commended the effort of
President Paul Kagame for his brilliant initiatives in the areas of
entrepreneurship and attracting key investments to the African
continent.
The President
of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, who supported
Elumelu’s stance, acknowledged that agriculture can create jobs for the
teeming African population if youths approached the sector, not just as
a way of life, but as a business.
He
seized the opportunity to commend Elumelu for his work in
entrepreneurship and pledged to support the work of the TEF in the
creation of jobs. “I applaud Tony Elumelu’s work in entrepreneurship,
because entrepreneurship is key. We will help to scale up what Tony
Elumelu is doing. If others are doing same, we will succeed in Africa”.
The
Rwandan Development Board also hosted Elumelu at a roundtable breakfast
meeting with the Founder and Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group, Jack
Ma to discuss investment opportunities in Afrcia.
The
Youth Connekt Summit hosted by the President of Rwanda, H.E. Paul
Kagame, gathered 2,500 invited guests from the private and public
sectors.
The
opening plenary session was moderated by Adeyemi Babington Ashaye,
Head, Global Shapers Community, World Economic Forum; other panelists
include; Akinwumi Adesina, President, African
Development Bank; Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary, Economic Commission
for Africa; and Diane Karusisi, CEO, Bank of Kigali.
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