Peter Varndell
Our role is to mobilise the private sector to support government initiatives. We take our cues from the continental plan through bodies like SADC and other development-oriented bodies. Ours is not to be a lobby group but to give governments a boost in their programmes, by that we mean financial resources, capacity, expertise and other aspects of development.
What we do is unpack these government-endorsed master plans and try identifying the areas within them that have business-specific interest. We help evaluate how the projects would support the growth of businesses or the projects that business believes can be successfully implemented.
Overall we see ourselves as development partners that help governments execute and drive projects forward with the only caveat being that we only work on stuff that business believes in.
R Yofi Grant
Intra-African trade is currently less than 15%, and we are doing more with Europe than we are doing within ourselves.
If we remove those barriers, then we have a real opportunity of industrialising Africa. By 2050, Africa will still have the most investment opportunities in the world because we are rich in resources. A lot of our investments are in that area, and this is where we can leverage partnerships in Africa.
Address Malata
Universities have got a huge role to play to push for entrepreneurship. Partnership with industries is key because you cannot teach these issues on your own. We invite industries on campus and also attract entrepreneurs who have made progress and have stories to tell. The idea of us linking with industries is because they have got some components that universities do not have. We have involved industries in developing our own curriculum/ strategic plan for the university; because we know they know more about entrepreneurship.
Scaling Up: How Successory Nigeria Brings Scale to African Business
"Successory Nigeria CEO, Dr Steve Ogidan, is bringing together a broad coalition of institutions committed to driving African growth through microfinance.
Microfinance, when implemented effectively and sustainably, has been credited with lifting millions out of poverty, addressing gender inequality, and providing access to finance that aspiring business-owners can not usually access from traditional bank loans."
