Osinbajo calls for different narrative about Africa

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said that the reports about Africa do not often accurately represent the reality of life and opportunity and therefore called for different narratives about Africa.
Osinbajo made the call during the Founder’s Presidential Dialogue as part of the 2019 Tony Eluemlu Foundation Entrepreneurship Leadership Forum in Abuja on Saturday.
He said the achievements of some of the young entrepreneurs from the Forum provides opportunities for capacity building to change the negative narrative about Africa.
According to him, our school curriculums must begin to emphasize, not just Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, but Critical Thinking and Entrepreneurship.
He said the proposal by the ADB President for the establishment of Entrepreneurship Banks must be kept.
While commending the Tony Elumelu Foundation for the initiative, the vice president said the initiative has compelled the government to focus on the youth and their dreams.
In the presidential dialogue moderated by CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, the Rwandan President spoke of how his country managed to emerge from the ravages of war to become one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa.
He said their driving force was self-believe and determination of the people to unite and find solutions to their national challenge.
“When we looked back then, we found that there was no alternative to Rwanda. We sank so low that there was no way else to go to. The only way to go was up,” he said.
He said the first thing his government had to deal with was the reorientation of his people’s minds for them to believe in themselves and their power to come of their common problem together.
“We found a way to make them understand that as Rwandans, they have to be there for themselves. We had to build our systems ourselves. At the same time, we have to look for ways of doing things differently from what people are used to.
“With a change in mindset, our people were made to see the development as something we must do, or prosperity as something we must achieve.
Next, he said, they invested in their broken infrastructure and good governance to create the environment for investment and business.
“It was for us to convince ourselves that we can do it, and there was no alternative than do it ourselves,” he said.
In her introductory remarks, the CEO of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, described the Foundation as a new movement across Africa, which is leading the continent’s renaissance on the wings of entrepreneurship.
She said the TEF, together with its partners, as the driver of the movement, is a catalyst to Africa economic development.
According to her, the initiative involves mobilising young entrepreneurs, mentoring them and putting seed capital of $5,000 in their hands and helping them create jobs in their thousands and generating revenue in millions.
“With $5 billion invested in African entrepreneurs, that will empower one million entrepreneurs who will, within 24 months, create 25 million jobs,” she said.
With 7,000 of the beneficiaries of the seed capital for the TEF Group, Ms Ugochukwu described them as the seed that has been sown to realize the great African dream of prosperity and progress.
“Through you, Africa will rise to take its rightful place, should to shoulder, as an equal partner as a valuable contributor to the peace and the prosperity of our planet,” she said.