Today, I had the privilege of speaking at the London Business School, hosted by the Africa Business Club, on the theme “From Promise to Prosperity: Charting Africa’s Development with Political Will and Vision.”
During the engagement and Q&A session, I stated that Africa is not poor, but its natural wealth is just being poorly managed.
Africa is a continent blessed with everything you can think of. We have about 30% of the world’s known mineral reserves and over 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land. 60% of global solar energy potential is in Africa, yet we are still talking about energy poverty.
We have the youngest population on earth, over 60% of our 1.4 billion people are young and productive. By 2050, 40% of the world’s youth will be African. That’s potential waiting to be unlocked.
But the reality is different. Despite all this, we are still home to extreme poverty, insecurity, and rising unemployment. Our problem is simple, failure of leadership.
While Asia now contributes over 35% of global GDP, Africa contributes less than 3%. This is largely because Asian leadership focuses on education, healthcare, production and poverty reduction, whereas in Africa, the opposite tends to be the case.
We must invest in education, health, productivity and poverty reduction. We must feed our people. We must secure our lands and lives. We must cut wasteful spending and invest in our people.
Africa doesn’t lack potential. What we lack is purposeful, accountable, and competent leadership.
To move from promise to prosperity, Africa must prioritize competence, character, capacity, compassion, and integrity in leadership.
A new Nigeria and Africa are POssible.
-PO
