By Adedapo Adesanya
Founder and Chairman of United Bank for Africa (UBA), Mr Tony Elumelu, has advocated massive private capital investment as well as increased support to youth development to drive economic growth on the continent.
Mr Elumelu made this notion while he was speaking on a panel at the UK-Africa Investment Summit 2020 held in London. He stressed the need to invest in critical sectors of the economy such as electricity and human resources, stating that this will help the continent considering the huge population of Africa.
“Africa needs massive private capital investment to enable us drive the sectors that will develop the economy, especially sectors like power. Access to electricity is very critical if we are to develop our continent.
“We have a huge youth population in Africa and I think that is our biggest resource as a continent. So, in order to talk about the development of our continent, we must prioritise this segment and focus on how to empower them.
“Empowering the youths will help us create jobs and alleviate poverty and I think that this empowerment must start from creating an enabling environment, from making sure we have roads, mass transportation systems and most importantly, fixing the problem of shortage of electricity on the continent.
“If we do all of this, we will unleash the enormous potential that resides in Africa and in these young people,” he said.
Speaking on the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), he said “During lunch, I interacted with some alumni of the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship programme who said they were beneficiaries of $5,000 support in 2015 from the TEF, and today, they have just completed raising $3 million, becoming one of the biggest food chain providers in Rwanda.
“These are some examples of what such interventions can do. We support, give them an enabling environment, provide a platform and think of our prosperity in a sustainable fashion,” Mr Elumelu added.
The inaugural UK Africa Investment summit 2020 which was opened by the British Prime Minister, Mr Boris Johnson brought together African heads of states, business leaders and investors, to discuss future partnerships between the UK and African nations.
The United Kingdom expressed its commitment to compete with other countries and partner with African countries and businesses, announcing certain measures such as planning a fairer immigration policy and halting environmentally unfriendly aids, Business Post reports.
Dipo Olowookere