Name: Building Africa's New Economy
Uploaded: 2025-10-28
Duration: 20 min 30 s

Africa is poised to play a defining role in the next wave of global growth. With a population expected to reach 2.5 billion by 2050, a burgeoning youth population, the world’s largest free trade area, and a 75% surge in foreign investment in 2024, the continent holds enormous potential. The private sector is already unlocking value across infrastructure, finance, and AI, which could contribute up to $103 billion in additional economic gains. But challenges remain: Millions live in conflict-affected areas, face food insecurity, and remain unconnected and unemployed. We’ll explore how innovation, investment, and partnership can tap into Africa’s strengths to drive sustainable and resilient growth.  

Building Africa's New Economy

Conferences

Please join me in welcoming our panelists. We have Kate Callow, who is the founder and CEO of data infrastructure company Amini, Boris Kojo, co-founder of Investments and Impact platform Full Circle Africa, and Ndidi Okoko Winelli, who is the CEO for the Global Advocacy Group One campaign. Come on up. I'm here. Ah. Hello, I feel like we should start with a lightning round. Um, I neglected to mention I had the opportunity to study at the University of Nairobi many years ago, and these were issues we were talking about then. So I'm curious what has changed. Let's just start with that. What do you think is different now? And I'll go to you first, Kate. Of course, first, thank you for having me today. It's a pleasure to be here. Um, what's changed? Yeah, if you consider that AI is. Driving a new industrial revolution today, Africa is not just exporting its raw material in terms of data. The new generation is learning how to refine it and for me this is creating a new digital economy for the continent. OK, Boris, how about you? What do you think is different right now? I think what's different, I mean we all know what you already alluded to the numbers, you know, youngest demographic in the world, um, increasing urbanization. Uh, fastest growth of connectivity. I think what's missing is it's, it's really about um shifting leverage. Whether it's fintech content, um, trade, no longer aid, uh, and then what's really important to remember also is that, uh, the diaspora capital is organizing which just happened in the last 10 years and that's the major difference which leads to the shift in leverage because now we're talking about, um, Africa plus diaspora equals uh global access. I love that, indeed. What do you think? Obviously, one of the differences right now is we've seen this pull back USAID. How is that impacting things? Well, first, it's an honor to be here. I would say that it's a wake-up call for us on the continent, um, and also a galvanizing force. This is the first year that African Union is hosting the G20. South Africa is hosting the G20. We're seeing the world come on the continent and recognize the investment potential that has not been leveraged. We're also seeing a new scramble for critical minerals. 70% of the world's cobalt is in DRC. Uh, South Africa has some of the greatest, most, uh, amazing minerals, but across the continent, there's access and opportunity, uh, with the Lobito corridor covering three countries, and so we're seeing a new renewed interest in value addition for critical minerals, not just export alone. An interest and a growing interest in Africa's food, where we already contribute so much of the world's food, but not enough value addition. So that wake up call is saying we need investments to drive growth. We need investments that are priced fairly to unlock the jobs on the continent, and we need new partnership models based on equality and equity and true partnerships that are mutually beneficial. Well, I want to talk about how some of that manifesting itself. Let's talk. some of the levers Boris you mentioned, but Kate, let me go to you first. You mentioned, um, tell us a little bit about what your company is doing first of all, because I think some of the levers that you're looking at are also important in terms of this being empowering for Africa this moment with AI. Absolutely. So within my company we are building the data infrastructure for Africa, which means we focus on building the computing infrastructure, focused on organizing Africans' data and enabling an ecosystem. Them to build solutions that are purpose built for our local context but also that are sovereign and efficient to us. So when we think about this and when we think about the levers today it's important to go back to how this technology is enabling and changing the way we interact and live today. We've seen the explosion of AI and the promise of AI in Africa is to add $2.9 trillion to the economy within the next five years. So let me pause. Before we move down the line, so are the LLMs, um, there's obviously concern in other markets about, uh, how they're collecting the data, compensating what's going in, what are you seeing in Africa? Is it a concern for you? What's your message to them? So you used to work at Nvidia, by the way I used to work in, um, today is the concern, but the opportunities that we already seeing governments starting to look at data and compute as a critical infrastructure. You know, before we were thinking about critical infrastructure in the concept of investing in roads in hospitals. Today we understand that data and compute and connectivity will drive the future of our economies. So it's already changing, and we see governments going to those large language model companies and saying, Well, what are you doing for my country? You know, none of those LLMs are trained, reflecting our realities today because we still have close to a billion people offline. And these companies are using data from the internet to train their models. So by definition, anyone in Kenya, in Nigeria, and other places in Africa who are using those LLMs are using are using models that are not trained to reflect their realities, their culture, their language, but we're seeing already a movement that is demanding that any AI solutions that is deployed in countries is actually localized and adapted to the Realities of the communities, I think that's very powerful, you know, Boris, you mentioned earlier the diaspora, obviously a very important lever. Is there a template that you look at where you think this is, this is um a country or a community that has done it right? You know, I know you're harnessing both investment, obviously intellectual capital. You had a big event yourself. What do you think is the model? Well, I think um the model depends on culture. I, I use China as an example because they have done an incredible job in the last 40 years, uh, um, partnering with the diaspora and, and the diaspora coming back home. Um, Africa, Africa's diaspora is, is the third biggest country in the world after China and India's very powerful, and what we have tried to do with full circle is, um, when we first started, um, producing a year of return. Um, we focused on, uh, connectivity, on celebrating collective heritage and ancestry, um, as your superpower, and, um, I think what's also very important to point out is that Through that celebration came a sense of identity that a lot of African Americans were lacking, um, and making sure people understand is that our history didn't start 400 years ago. Um, and therefore we're not descendants of slaves, but we're descendants of, uh, people who created vast civilizations and royalties and so on, and that shift in consciousness is a big deal when it comes to, um. Identifying the power of storytelling, isn't it? And that's something I think that you do so well is about storytelling. Um well, let's go to those stories. I want to ask how different countries are engaging, but when you think about the story right now for Africa, what questions do you think we're not asking enough, or do you wish we. You were asked more often. Well, the big issue is the negative narrative associated with the continent. Too many people still think of Africa, they think of a hungry child, not realizing that we actually are huge contributors to the global economy and so we're changing that narrative from a hungry child to a successful female entrepreneur, and we're also providing data to support it. Africa currently pays 5 times relative to other regions for debt. So when we think about the debt crisis that many countries face, it's linked to this negative bias, and Africa no filter quantifies just the cost of negative reporting about Africa at $4.2 billion. UNDP escalates to over $80 billion and we want to address that by telling positive stories. Now the IFC, for example, we looked at 3 years of decades, three decades of investment in Africa. I have the infrastructure investments generated 6 S&P 500. That story is not getting told. Across the continent, across countries, across sectors, we're seeing 6, 10x returns on investment in critical sectors. We're seeing growth. And so the one campaign we're changing the narrative and we're seeing Africa is a return on investment, not a risk, and this is the time to partner with us with fair financing that delivers results and delivers jobs. We also want to change the narrative. About Africa's youth, the migration story is often told from a lack, not an opportunity, and Africa has a workforce for the future, the health workforce, the tech workforce, the creative industry workforce, and that has to be an asset that is recognized by the world. And I'm very excited to see some of the partnerships. I had a great conversation yesterday with the Ministry of Tourism from Saudi Arabia. That's exactly the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is ready to partner with the African continent and many of. Our country to see how can we unlock the young potential of our continent and for me that's key to change I love that if you want to weigh in, I'm gonna actually if I don't go to questions from the audience, I know I'm not going to um have time so if you have a question please raise your hand. We do have mic runners and we will uh just give us your name um so I'm gonna go before we get there I'll ask in a minute because I know there's some people who'd mention. To me they have questions. Let me ask how different um countries are engaging. Is there a model for how to do it well, um, but actually let me step back a second because I want to get back to USAID. So much of what's been happening in the US is happening around the world where you're seeing these fortresses go up, right, in terms of, and yet we're seeing more of a trade zone that's happening in Africa. Give me your sense as to how countries are engaging in your mind, not just how companies are engaging. Do you see challenges or opportunities there when you're looking at how we can be partnering what the US, for example, can be doing while you're from Silicon Valley? How present is it in Africa now that you're in Nairobi? So Africa is still now considered as one of the last frontier of expansion, especially from. market standpoint in the technology sector and when DJ was mentioning around the partnerships, we now need true partnerships. It's not just about aid, it's not just about philanthropy. It's about investment and countries now are starting to negotiate from that position of strategic partnership, the strategic partnership for the benefit of their communities, and that's a whole mindset shift that is happening across the continent. You're seeing this not just at the government level but also at the developer at the community and at the startup level, and that gives me a lot of hope because we now see startups who are coming to really build the future of their countries and their economies and are trying to really address challenges that are proper to their communities so that they can accelerate development locally. We see the diaspora coming. I came back 3 years ago, um, formerly. From New York City, right, and you see you're originally from, originally from Central African Republic, which is a country, by the way, that still hasn't been able to really exploit its natural resources, but we're seeing technology and AI as potentially one of the biggest equalizer that Africa has never seen. One of the challenges, and Boris, maybe I'll go to you on this as well, is is that when countries have engaged, there's sometimes been a sense that Um, they're engaging because to get the resources they're engaging in a way maybe that, OK, I'll put that in that's OK, maybe not just sometime. What's your feeling about that? Why is it so important for the diaspora to step up? Because obviously there's interest, but it's manifests itself in a certain way. I'm thinking US, China, Europe, etc. etc. Two things. One, I think it's important what Indii said about ownership of narrative and uh. Because when you create the when we create our narrative, we can stop some of the extractive economic cycles that are happening that have been happening forever and take ownership of our narrative um I come from the creative industry the creative industry is, is in my opinion, probably the most effective tool to change that narrative. I know a lot of bankers. Uh, they don't understand, uh, uh, the idea of creative economies, uh, uh, uh, contributing. For me it's everything. Um, right now the creative industry in Africa is $5 billion. It's gonna grow to $200 billion in the next 10 years, right? That means, um, curating and controlling. The way the world sees and buys when they think Africa and it's not just about continent itself, it's about perception like you said it's about a great exporter of culture it's, it's about perception. It's about which which then impacts, uh, uh, uh, investment policy, tourism, soft power infrastructure, infrastructure that supports scalable production, monetization and distribution. So, um. Counteracting those old stereotypical biased narratives that have been uh uh largely controlled by Western media over the last 100 years, that's what we're here to do and that's what has been happening over the past 10 years continue to happen. I see a question over here, um, Marjorie Kraus, do we have a mic for her or there we go. I think it's coming your way. Or project, I guess. OK. Hi, Marjorie, I can say. OK. There's a mic right here. Hi, I'll try to repeat that. Um, what can Africa do um with the free trade agreement to try to from within, not only help change the narrative but actually create more commerce and maybe stop maybe be more coopetition than just competition. Yeah, good question. Marjorie Kraus, APCO, uh, anybody wanna answer that? Go ahead. I can take that. So right now in Africa trade is about 16%. We need that to go up significantly. So that's why we need infrastructure investment. We need to reduce the trade barriers between our countries, but we also need to speak with one voice because if we negotiate together around our critical minerals, for example, our food commodities. We can then elevate the the value addition within our continent and drive that growth. So I completely agree with you. We are pushing our governments to do a big part of the work in terms of reducing the trade barriers, but also telling positive stories because to drive investment we need to showcase the returns that have come in already and how they are creating jobs and creating equity. I always believe and when we say there's no sovereignty without solidarity, so we need our countries across the world to partner with the continent, but from a position of equity, fairness and transparency. The libido corridor is an example. Three countries have come together Zambia, DRC, and Angola. And the question is how do we do this rail that's going across these three countries, drive, export, but also insist on value addition and local content as we invest, and we're seeing a lot of countries come alongside. I was just in the Nordics for the Nordic Africa summit, and we're seeing some growing interest, so that's positive and we need More of those type of mutually beneficial relationships so that we're having sovereignty where we have our voice and solidarity where we come alongside the rest of the world. So let me ask a question I know we're gonna have to sum up soon, but we're also seeing one of the things with youth is youth tends to be active and we're seeing youth movements around the world, including in Africa. Is there a message? How are you finding the government responding internally? Obviously we've talked about external governments. Kate, I mean, any thoughts on just the power of those youth movements? I mean, anybody can address this, but how, how is that changing? OK, Boris? Well, first of all, I think governments are reactive and sometimes it's much faster to, to engage with the with the private sector because it's almost like you're shaming the government to do the right thing and that's when they really respond. Uh, that's how we, that's how we have been working in the five regions. We go through the private sector, we set the stage and create a mandate, and then we get, um, endorsements from the government, um, in terms of youth. Africa's new economy is young, creative. Digital and fast moving and it's no longer defined only by resources but by ideas by culture and by technology and Africa is the only in the sense of the word there you go, and Africa is the only region, uh, where, uh, population is getting younger, more connected and more entrepreneurial all at the same time, and I think the world is no longer asking why Africa, but When can we get in, and I think the time is now. I'm going to give each of you a chance to give some final thoughts. I know that this is too brief a time, but it's teaser content. I'm sure people will want to come up to you. Indeed, I'm going to give to you first. Well, the first message I'd like to give is that really we're at a stage where we need. Partnerships build on equality, transparency and excellence. Africa is ready for business. There is a strong case for the return on investment. It is a complex continent with 54 countries. We should stop talking about it as if it's one country. There are opportunities across the board and we are ready to partner. With the right investments that drive growth. So please start becoming a narrative changer. Speak about the positive and Excellence. Our youth are the future of the world and we are ready to engage with investors who are committed to that growth trajectory, right for us. Um, yeah, I would say, um, the creative industry in my opinion is the most important tool and not just recreating our narrative, controlling our narrative, but also, um, having a huge impact economically, culturally and socially, uh, and we're talking actual movies, documentaries, gaming, uh, the industry is growing, uh uh uh rapidly with. In tune with connectivity and connectivity is growing 3 times faster than anywhere else. You star in movies in Africa. If I have to, I will begrudging. What I'm saying is that if I add value, then I will. If not, then I will produce. But the whole point is that again, creating and owning our narrative and our IP to stop exporting talent. Rather keep the talent and export goods and services. That's uh excellent. Last word goes to you, Kate. I'll bounce off what what what Boris just said around exporting. Um, I do think that right now the narrative is that there is no AI innovation that's being done in Africa, but I actually want to um. Say that right now Africa is leading in building an AI that's efficient, that's responsible, and that is inclusive. And within the next 5 to 10 years we're going to see African intelligence being exported in other countries across the global South. So be on the watch out for that. Love that. Please join me in thanking our three terrific guests. Enjoy it. Thank you so much.