Africa has been defined as the poverty home of the world. And it is quite worrisome that this label of Africa in the global economy has persisted for too long despite the volume of supports that come into the region regularly in terms of financial aid from the first world countries and the international non-governmental organisations.
Also worrisome is that rather than being used to address fundamental problems, much of the aids that come into Africa have been centred on nursing the symptoms.
When you teach the people how to fish and provide them with the necessary tools, hunger soon becomes the least of their worries.
The forgoing aphorism from an African social thought should guide the continuing efforts to reconstruct Africa’s outlook and improve the region’s relationship with other regions of the world as well as her general contributions in the global economy.
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In light of the above, Nigerian Philanthropist and United Bank for Africa’s founder, Tony Elumelu has called for a redefined relationship between the US and Africa, stating the US new engagement with Africa should reflect a transition from giving aid to empowerment of youth and support to sustainable private sector. The financial luminary in a post published on his LinkedIn page on Sunday expressed his conviction that a genuine interest to re-engage Africa is one that should be done in a way that prioritizes mutual benefits and self-reliance.
The UBA don who has been a strong advocate and patron of African renaissance believes empowering the youth through entrepreneurship will help address many of the challenges that Africa and the world face today such as poverty, climate change, insecurity, food security, education etc. He also noted the relevance of the private sector for the development of a deepened US-Africa trade and investments relationship, adding that a key foundation to this is a seamless payment infrastructure between the two continents.
More importantly, Africa’s business leaders need to begin to change the narrative domestically through corporate social responsibilities. At a US-Africa Leaders summit which will be holding from December 13 to 15 in Washington DC, US, Mr Elumelu said he will be discussing how the UBA group and the Tony Elemelu foundation has been contributing to improved livelihoods of people and economy of Africa.
‘’I am a philanthropist; I am a business man – for me the distinction is not huge. We do business to do good. And the good we do builds better, stronger sustainable business. We know how to effect at scale and we want more partners to join us’’ Tony Elumelu said.