At the recent MEDEF Summer
University Forum in Paris, the annual meeting of French business
and political leaders, Tony Elumelu, Chairman, Heirs Holdings and UBA
Plc and Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, stressed the
opportunities Africa offers and urged stronger business relationships
between France and Africa; calling for a deepening of
commercial relationships based on mutual respect and interest.
The Forum is one
of France’s leading gatherings, bringing together over 7,500 business and
opinion leaders, including Heads of State, government
officials, political and business leaders, academics and
over 450 French and international journalists. Elumelu was one of the
select representatives from Africa, where he contributed to the
opening panel debate, ‘The World is Watching Us’. Moderated
by Frédéric Ferrer, journalist, consultant and professor at ESCP
Europe, other participants were the President of MEDEF, Pierre Gattaz;
Gary Coombe, President of Proctor & Gamble Europe;
and Oudet Souvannavong, Executive Vice-President of the Lao National
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and President of Lao Hotel & Restaurant
Association.
As a
leading advocate for the African private sector and champion
of African entrepreneurship, Elumelu began his speech
by thanking France for the cordial business relationship between
France and Africa. “When we as Africans look at France, we see a long standing
friend of Africa. Looking forward, France and Africa
must continue to partner in a manner that brings about positive
change.”
Mr. Elumelu is known as the proponent
of Africapitalism, the philosophy that Africa’s
private sector can and should drive economic change on the
continent. Fundamental to this is the role
of entrepreneurship, which creates wealth and jobs on the
scale needed in Africa. Mr. Elumelu pursued this theme, stating that
the solutions to issues of social exclusion are enterprise and
entrepreneurship.
He urged France to look
beyond its traditional
relationships with Francophone countries, important as they
are, and to embrace Anglophone and Lusophone Africa.
He called on small and large businesses in France and in Africa to seek ways of
collaborating in order to deepen economic ties. “France has very
strong links with Francophone Africa, and we would like to see you engage
more commercially with the Anglophone countries; creating a new form
of economic and commercial partnership between France and the whole of Africa,”
he said.
Mr. Elumelu has long been an
advocate of Africa on the rise and seized the opportunity to encourage
businesses to invest on the continent, which has so much to offer in
returns. He highlighted the role
of Africans themselves investing on the
continent, while making a call to the French public and private sector to
do the same, stating that there is nowhere else that can give as much
return on investment as in Africa.
“There is a reason MEDEF has a
new economic interest in
Africa. Africa is home to the largest and fastest growing
consumer population globally. It is a huge opportunity for both international
and domestic businesses – and African businesses are increasingly
competing successfully. What we all want to see is Africa growing its own value
adding industries; the days of commodity extraction are over.”
Elumelu
advised governments to support the private sector, in order to
create more value in the society. “What is good for the private sector is
also good for society. The private sector is best placed to assist
government achieve its mandate. If the private sector succeeds,
it creates more jobs, enhances security, and
improves living standards”.
Pierre Gattaz added to
this statement saying: “Full employment should be on the agenda of any
political programme that is worth any value or worth its name. This should take
up 70% of any political agenda moving forward. We must encourage and trust
those who bring enterprise and create jobs”.
Elumelu himself has
an extraordinary track record of job
creation, including creating the UBA Group, which now employs over
20,000 people in 19 African countries. And he is giving
back, through the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s $100m commitment
to support 10,000 entrepreneurs over a period of 10 years. Mr
Elumelu concluded the session by encouraging the entrepreneurs present to
reach for their dreams. “Entrepreneurs are able to bring their ideas to
fruition through the support we give them. This is helping them not just to
dream, but to turn their ideas into successful ventures – and
create the foundation for broad based and meaningful change in Africa”.
The event was closed by the
moderator, Frederic Ferrer, who applied the tag line of the Tony Elumelu
Foundation's entrepreneurship programme to France, "Your ideas can
transform France too and not just Africa!".
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