The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Youth Authority (NYA), Sylvester Tetteh wants African youth to change the negative narrative about the continent.
Mr. Tetteh says the narrative about Africa being a continent of war, poverty, and deprivation must be changed.
“Africa is the richest continent in this world, we have everything; the negative stories about us was in the past. This is new Africa, a new vision and a new orientation”.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the 2019 Youth Conneckt Africa summit being held in Kigali, Rwanda Mr. Tetteh said the rich human resources in Africa have the ability to compete with Europeans and the Americans.
“Look, the kind of brain we have in Africa is unmatched anywhere in this world. Africa is blessed it is no more the dark continent people think it is”.
Sylvester Tetteh is leading the Ghana delegation to the summit which is expected to cover key issues affecting young people including creating jobs for Africa, turning passion into profit and breaching the gender divide.
Other subjects on the agenda include the digital economy and opportunities therein and opportunities in the agricultural sector.
The summit is expected to feature over 100 speakers who include leading professionals from policy influencers, political and industry leaders, to public, private and development sector youth champions.
About the summit
The summit will feature a platform for start-ups to pitch their businesses and concepts to established angel investor to access capital of up to USD 200,000. The session is dubbed ‘Face the Gorillas’.
The summit is against a target to create 10M sustainable jobs by 2020 in emerging industries and 25 million opportunities through training and enrolment in workplaces across the continent.
Youth Conneckt also aims at identifying, nurturing and grow up to one million leaders that provide solutions, participate in advocacy as well as developing sustainable initiatives and policies that reduce gender inequality.
The summit will also take stock of progress in connecting incubation hubs across the continent and provide access to markets, innovation-friendly capital from partners and partnership opportunities with peers across the continent.
Renowned Ivorian Footballer Didier Drogba is expected to address the gathering. Previous summits have attracted renowned figures such as Alibaba founder Jack Ma, Akon, and serial investor Strive Masiyiwa.
Last year’s summit convened over 3,800 participants from 90 countries and about 60 speakers.