UNGA 79: The Global Africa Business Initiative (GABI) Session Themed: “Unstoppable Africa”

• Share:

BRIEF REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, IMMEDIATE PAST VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, AT #UNGA79: THE GLOBAL AFRICA BUSINESS INITIATIVE SESSION THEMED: “UNSTOPPABLE AFRICA” IN NEW YORK, AMERICA,  ON THE 26TH OF SEPTEMBER, 2024

The innovation ecosystem in Africa today is disconnected in many respects. One of the things we can do to fix this is to address the issue of market access. We must ensure that our policies and regulations allow start-ups on the continent to do business in any of our jurisdictions, work on lowering barriers to entry and facilitate cross-border transactions so our start-ups can scale.

The major issue for us at timbuktoo Africa Innovation Fund is to see how we can enable these start-ups in Africa to scale, which is so crucial. everywhere I have gone, I have been to a few countries talking to government officials, trying to get their buy-in into the Africa Innovation Fund, and the first question any Head of State would ask is, “How is this going to create jobs and opportunities?”

Everyone is speaking to scale, saying how this will make a difference in terms of good-paying jobs for the many young people in Africa today. This is where I think the work of timbuktoo fits into the aspirations of the government and young people.

It is really that we can do a lot to fix the ecosystem.

***On the margins of UNGA 79, the Global Africa Business Initiative (GABI) session ‘Africa Accelerates – Tooling Up our Next Generation of Global Tech Stars’ promoted discussions on solving for the challenges start-ups in Africa face today and role of the timbuktoo Africa Innovation Foundation in creating an enabling ecosystem for their success. Listening to the different perspectives reinforced the aptness of this year’s theme: Unstoppable Africa.***