Wilfred Kiboro, the chairman of the Nation Media Group, says the bulk of the work to be done in Africa lies with the continent’s youth.
As such, Dr Kiboro has urged the youth to work hard to grow the continent by developing the ideas churned out by experts on Africa.
“The bulk of the work lies with the young people,” Dr Kiboro told Asaase Radio’s Business One-on-One on Tuesday (26 October). “The bulk of our population in Africa is the 25-to-35 age group and therefore the people who have to shape what Africa ought to be are the youth.
“For us [the older generation], what we can do is come up with ideas in terms of how we develop them.”
Dr Kiboro was in conversation on Business One-on-One with Prince Moses, Asaase Radio’s head of business, announcing the imminent arrival in Accra of the Kusi Ideas Festival.
He argued that there is a need to set the African agenda right and for Africans to determine the direction of the African narrative. The Kusi Ideas Festival seeks to position Africa to take its rightful place on the world stage, he said.
Ideas market
The Nairobi-based Nation Media Group launched the concept of the Kusi Ideas Festival three years ago on the occasion of the group’s 60th anniversary.
The festival aims to be a “pan-African ideas transaction market” to capitalise on opportunities and innovations open to Africa to help the continent advance in the 21st century.
It also works to create a continental platform for Africans to talk about Africa, share ideas and tell the African story in such a way that it will project a positive image of the continent to the global community, as well as enhance living standards among its people.
“A united Africa”
The Nation Media Group chairman catalogued the main challenges and opportunities emerging from the continent, including the AfCFTA and new ideas of how African countries can collaborate to boost trade between them.
“Africa needs to do a couple of things. One of them is understanding that the rest of the world is not favourable to Africa.
“Every nation, particularly whether East or West, first and foremost looks after its national interest. So who has to look after the African interest other than ourselves?
“And the first thing that we need to do is to find out how we can actually unite as African nations, because in the unity we can have a lot of strength.”
Watch the clip of Dr Kiboro on “Business One-on-One” below:
Inaugural festival
The Nation Media Group (NMG) launched the Kusi Ideas Festival in 2019 to act as an “ideas transaction market” for the challenges facing Africa, and as a laboratory for the solutions and innovations the continent is engineering to secure its future in the 21st century.
The inaugural festival, held in Kigali, Rwanda (8-9 December 2019), was co-hosted by President Paul Kagame under the theme “The Next 60 Years in Africa”.
The conference attracted 1,600 delegates (business leaders, policymakers, diplomats, innovators, researchers, young entrepreneurs and students) from five continents and was graced by President Félix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Among other prominent guests in attendance were the African Union Commission chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat, and the African Union high representative for infrastructure development and former prime minister of Kenya, Raila Odinga.
The second festival, under the theme “Towards a Post-COVID Africa: Recovering Together”, was held against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. It sought to explore the impact of the disease on the African continent as well as identify innovations, opportunities and partnerships that will enable it to survive and thrive in a post-pandemic world.
The 2020 festival was attended by 14,000 participants virtually – from 44 countries and 83 major cities – and 230 delegates in person.
The third edition of the festival is scheduled to take place at the Accra International Conference Centre on 10 and 11 December 2021 and will consider “How Africa Transforms after the Virus”.
This year’s conference, which will be a hybrid (virtual and in-person) event, comes nearly two years in to the COVID-19 outbreak, which has suspended economic and social growth across the world in ways that nothing else has done in nearly eight decades.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is expected to be the host and the keynote speaker at this year’s event.
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