From March 25th through March 27th, the British Council Africa, in partnership with Ashoka Africa, held its annual Impact! Africa Entrepreneurial Summit. Centred on a creative approach to Africa’s most pressing challenges, this year’s meeting focused on “inspiring, supporting and connecting leading social entrepreneurs and key ecosystem players across countries, organisations and sectors such as policy, social investment, business and media.” Due to the global pandemic, this year marked the summit’s first virtual edition, allowing a range of speakers and panelists from across the globe such as Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, CEO of the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF,) Prof. Benedict Okey Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the African Export–Import Bank (Afreximbank) and Garance Wattez-Richards, CEO of AXA Emerging Customers, and winner of the 2020 Women in Insurance Award.

Here’s a summary of some of the business and entrepreneurship insights shared during the summit: 

Day 1: Young, Female and African – Developing Support Systems to Encourage Entrepreneurship amongst Young Africans

Moderated by CNN anchor, Eleni Giokos, the opening panel began with a keynote by Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, TEF’s CEO, and a self-described afro-optimist. Ugochukwu emphasised how small and medium enterprises are the backbone of economies, contributing to more than 35% of GDP in emerging markets. Her reasoning? The reality that small businesses promote innovative delivery of goods and services, but are underserved by financial institutions due to credit gaps. Supporting these enterprises, and the young Africans who lead them is not only an African problem, but a global one; considering the continent’s burgeoning youth population will soon make up 39% of the entire world’s population.

Ugochukwu highlighted the fact that African female entrepreneurship rates are some of the highest in the world with 27% of the female adult population engaged in early-stage entrepreneurial activity. This makes them twice as likely to start a business than women in other parts of the world. This is not just a coincidence, but a result of resilience, determination, foresight and tenacity.  We later heard from Oreoluwa Lesi, Chinenyewa Okoro and AMAKA’s very own Adaora Oramah, who were joined by Tayo Olosunde, on the Gender & Youth panel, discussing how they’ve navigated their industries as African female entrepreneurs.

Key Quotes

“…if we can bridge the finance gap so that women have as much access to finance as their male counterparts, we will see a complete explosion of entrepreneurship because the woman is the heartbeat of the home.” 

- Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu

“I can go on and on about the challenges, but what I really want to hit on is the importance of community and getting people together” 

- Chineyenwa Okoro Onu

“There is massive opportunity both on the continent and in the diaspora for development, and AMAKA is amplifying those stories.” 

- Adaora Oramah

“Beyond just infrastructure, we need to put attention very strongly on youth development because failure to do that will mean missing out on the fourth industrial revolution...the resilience of the Nigerian youth is amazing, especially the ladies”

 - Tayo Olosunde

“It’s great to have men in the conversation and we need to have men play a part as well because a lot of these conversations are just women but we already know the problem.”

 - Oreoluwa Lesi

You can watch the full keynote and panel here.

Day 2: Building Socially Relevant Organisations for a Sustainable Future

The second day’s billing emphasised the importance of context, in a conversation between Arit Okpo, host of CNN’s African Voices Changemakers, and Robert Njoroge, Skills and Enterprise Portfolio Lead for the British Council. Instead of approaching business under a one shoe-fits all policy, Okpo and Njoroge encouraged founders to concentrate on research when building their companies and organisations, so that they can better serve their communities. The intricacies of African economies are understudied, meaning that a company focused on innovation must first understand who they are working with and why. Given the enormity of the challenges and constraints faced by entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurship and social regeneration must go hand-in-hand to ensure that the local and continental ecosystem grows holistically. When acting mindfully, not only can businesses provide financial empowerment, they can also be the catalyst for social change. This insight was followed by a panel discussion on social enterprise by Dr Noel Ihebuzor, Dr Emeka Osuji, and Damaris Uja.

Key Quotes 

“That person who is coming into the business space, what are the ways we can support them to thrive and what incentive model can be given to make this happen because social entrepreneurship is about having a vision and then creating a structure around that.” 

- Noel Ihebuzor

“Things are changing. We have a new generation of people so the first thing to do is to make sure society is encouraged to understand the importance of doing good with business.”

- Dr Emeka Osuji

“The thing with profit is that it's not only a business aspect, it's a means of getting funds to then invest in the work that we do such as renewable energy. I would advise people that it’s not just about being a non-profit, you also need the business so you can invest in your own program and make more money and sustain your organisation.” 

- Damaris Uja

“For social enterprise to exist successfully for many years we have discovered 4 foundational blocks. First, is Ownership – this has to do with proprietary rights as well as taking responsibility for the good, the bad, and the ugly that comes with any business enterprise” 

- Eyono Fatayi-Williams

You can watch the full discussions and panels here.

Day 3 - Financial Inclusion as a Driver of Growth for Youth-Driven Enterprises

Chaired by Stephanie Busari, Supervising Editor, CNN Africa, the third day’s opening fireside chat explored the challenges youth-driven enterprises encounter when scaling up. A conversation between Temitope Omojokun, Sandra Locoh-Donou, founder & CEO of Finlo, and Essma Ben Hadad, co-founder & Chairperson of Enda Inter-Arabe, examined some of the factors that determine the trajectory of youth-driven enterprises and ventures. Access to information, funding and mentorship was signalled as the three key elements critical to growing a business.

Often young entrepreneurs are not educated on the options available from investment avenues to business-optimisation strategies. So, what else holds them back? Lack of government support, outdated technology, and not enough mentorship? As seasoned businesswomen, the fireside chat focused on how to open up channels for communication, such as the Impact! Africa Summit, which provides this information to people who have a desire to start or are at the beginning of their entrepreneurial journey. 

The 3-day educational summit ended with the all-important topic of financial inclusion in a panel discussion between Philip Thigo, Joseph Nkandu, and Boitumelo Mbaakanyi.

Key Quotes

“It’s important to pick sectors that youth and women participate in for investment.” 

- Boitumelo Mbaakanyi

“There are certain structural challenges, it's not just finance because money is a tool for something. The easy thing is to throw money at it, but we need more transformative solutions”

- Philip Thigo

“In Europe especially, which is the main destination of our coffee, when the lockdown happened, what happened to our exports...what this means to the financial institutions is that now there is a risk. So, how do we get back the money or time when we get these unexpected problems? This is why we need to be adaptable to have access to working capital.” 

- Joseph Nkandu

“The SME segment within sub-Saharan Africa, has been referred to as the missing middle, in the context of financial inclusion or access to financial services. SMEs are by their nature, unable to provide the required collateral that large finance firms require amongst other conditions.” 

- Temitope Omojokun

You can watch the full discussions and panel here.

You can also sign up for further events and training sessions on the Impact! Africa website here.