The World Economic Forum (WEF) has launched the Africa Growth Platform to assist Africa’s community of start-up enterprises to grow and compete in international markets.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, WEF said the Africa Growth Platform will achieve this in three ways with the first being to secure commitments from governments to implement policy reforms aimed at stimulating and accelerating business growth.
“Secondly, it aims to build a community of investors, whether private investors, foundations, multilateral institutions or corporate entrepreneurs to enable better coordination and pooling of resources that could facilitate larger subsequent rounds of funding. Third, the platform will create and sustain a community of start-up businesses themselves, promoting collaboration and sharing best practice,” reads the statement.
WEF said the need for an innovative approach to helping Africa’s start-ups reach the scale where they become sustainable is backed up by data.
Africa’s young population is well-endowed with entrepreneurial spirit, with early-stage entrepreneurial activity 13% higher than the global average. However, due to insufficient support and infrastructure, the region’s start-ups are 14% more likely to fail than those elsewhere in the world,” said the WEF.
“The Africa Growth Platform brings together all the actors — governments, investors and the businesses themselves necessary to create an environment where they can fulfil their potential in terms of growth and employment,” said Elsie Kanza, Head of Africa at WEF.
The founding members of the Africa Growth Platform are:
Alibaba Group
- T. Kearney
Dalberg Group
Export Trading Group
U.S. African Development Foundation
Zenith Bank
The theme of the 2019 World Economic Forum on Africa is ‘Shaping Inclusive Growth and Shared Futures in the Fourth Industrial Revolution’. The meeting will convene more than 1 000 regional and global leaders from government, business, civil society and academia. This gathering will explore new models to help Africa achieve success at a time when technology is creating dramatic economic and societal shifts.
The meeting’s highly interactive programme will also cover issues as diverse as skills and education, the ocean economy, the economic impact of drones, free trade and ecommerce.
The co-chairs of the 2019 World Economic on Africa are Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust, (United Kingdom); Arancha Gonzalez Laya, Executive Director of the International Trade Centre (Geneva); Alex Liu, Managing Partner and Chairman at A.T. Kearney (USA); André Hoffmann, Vice-Chairman of Roche (Switzerland); Jim Ovia, Chairman of Zenith Bank (Nigeria), Sipho M. Pityana, Chairman of AngloGold Ashanti (South Africa).
