As Rwanda gears up to host the 26th World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa from May 11th to 13th, Business Day’s PATRICK ATUANYA and LOLADE AKINMURELE pre-empt this year’s gathering in an interview with Vanessa Moungar, community lead, regional strategies for WEF Africa.
WEF will be holding in Rwanda this time, what necessitates the choice of country location?
We have been fortunate enough to have a good number of activities in Africa in the last 25 years. The relationship started with South-Africa specifically, when it emerged from apartheid but over the years the interest in various countries has been rising and so now we host the meetings across the continent. You would recall that we were in Abuja in 2014. This year we are going to Rwanda for a number of reasons. They have focused on building a knowledge economy, which has allowed them to boast of one of the fastest growth rates on the continent, with a GDP growth rate hovering around 7.6 percent. They are also one of the most competitive economies in the African region. They have also been leading in the digital revolution, hosting the smaller African secretariats. So there are a number of factors that are very interesting to learn from for other countries. It’s also situated in East Africa, which is arguably one of the most integrated sub-regions.
For all these reasons, we will be going to Rwanda this year. However, we are definitely looking forward to exploring more countries, to see how we can bring our platform to more places across the continent in the coming years.
How would the challenge of connectivity to Rwanda play out at this year’s forum? Do they have the infrastructure to meet the flights coming in as a result of the forum?
Obviously we still have a long way to go for intra-Africa travel as you know. This being said, I think we have made a lot of progress. Looking at this year’s summit in Rwanda, we are quite confident that this wouldn’t be a major hurdle.
What is the theme of this year’s meeting?
This year’s forum is the 26th of its kind and we will be convening leaders from across the public and private sectors, as well as the civil society; under the theme, “Connecting Africa’s resources through digital transformation.” This year’s theme at the meeting in Davos was mastering the 4th industrial revolution and what that really means is trying to make sense of the implication of the digital transformation the world is going through right now and making sure we can collectively ensure that it serves humanity and doesn’t threaten it. We believe this is an urgent conversation we need to be having in the African context, and so that is what we would be doing in Kigali, Rwanda. We will be looking at this major challenge as a central challenge but we would also touch on the other regional challenges that the continent faces and see how we can strengthen public private cooperation to ensure economic prosperity across the region.
Building on this theme, who are the individuals that will be attending?
Our events are really touch points for all our communities to come together. We are expecting over 1000 participants to attend this year’s summit, which will include over 700 business leaders, over 200 members of the media, and a large number of delegations from across the continent. This year in particular, we are really expecting a pan-African participation. Although we will be hosting the meeting in east Africa, we anticipate a good number of public figures and heads of state across Africa.
Our participant list will be made public at the end of the month. But I can assure that all the important stakeholders in the conversation will definitely be there. One thing we do have in public domain at the moment is the list of co-chairs. We have 2 Nigerians on this list for the event. They are, Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, as well as the Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Tony Elumelu. So in terms of Nigerian representation, we are definitely hoping to have good representation from the business as well as the government sector.
How enthusiastic would you say the government officials in Africa are about the summit as you interface with them at a time where commodity prices have plummeted?
You are pointing to a very real challenge. The challenge lies in the slowdown in the economy occasioned by the slump in commodity price. This is a global challenge. However, Africa’s growth rate still remains above the global trend. This being said, high growth rate doesn’t necessarily mean it is transformed to inclusive growth that trickles down. I believe government leaders are very aware of the challenge especially those dependent on commodities. They are looking for innovative ways to diversify their economy away from commodities and this will happen through conversations with the various sectors because one thing that is sure is that none of the challenges can be solved by one party. Government alone will not be able to address the challenges, neither can the private sector. They both need to work together, with each party doing its part. Government provides the enabling environment and the much needed reforms to engender economic growth. Stemming from this, the private sector develops and provides the jobs necessary for inclusive economic growth often talked about. So I believe government is more than aware of the need to collaborate with the private sector. Government is eager to enter partnerships that are transformative and innovative. This is what we are looking to achieve through our platform, as we have in the past, today more than ever as the challenges we are faced with intensifies.
On the dependency on the oil sector, Nigeria is a great example of how the digital revolution is changing the landscape. You know that the telecommunications sector has now become the largest contributor to GDP. It is also a sector that is creating sustainable jobs and providing a very high return on investment for the private sector. That is the kind of growth we are looking to achieve. This is why it is important to watch the transformations in this industry very closely and see how they will allow us be more stable in the future and less dependent on one sector, as well as more prosperous in the long term.
The government reception to the summit has been very good. Our engagement across Africa is growing every year with new relationships and partnerships with many countries. We are delivering on some very specific initiatives that have had successful outcomes. I think we are really getting to a point where it is all about catalysing the power of the platform and the capacity of all the various actors. I can assure you that governments are very open to collaborations and are leading in some of the areas.
For the sake of our readers, tell us how WEF funds its activities? Do you get support from hosting governments or do you have sponsors?
As a rule the governments do not pay to participate in our activities and this is how we remain neutral. The forum is funded by all of our private sector partners, which allow us again to be as transparent as possible and able to make our own decisions based on where we feel we can have the most impact on improving the state of the world.
How does WEF go from being a talk-shop to crystallising the discussions being held? And what are the parameters used for measuring progress?
What we believe in is that any big change or transformation begins with a dialogue between all the relevant sectors. So this is what we are very proud to host by bringing all these leaders from government, the private sector and the civil society, together under one roof to agree on the right course of action and build relevant partnerships in order to make a difference on their grounds. Now we have very tangible examples on that. For example, one of our global challenges and focus is the global challenge of food security and agriculture. On this challenge we have brought together about 1500 leaders from across the sectors and from 500 different organisations from all the sectors again, to work together on transforming that commitment to global food security to include tangible actions through initiatives such as the “Grow Africa” initiative, which today has mobilised over $10 billion investments from the private sector and has reached over 9 million farmers on the continent till date. That’s one example; another is the initiative on digital transformation we are launching this year in Kigali, which is the “internet for all initiative”, with the aim of connecting the 4 billion people that are not currently online. For this we will be looking at innovative public and private partnership that can enable us to accelerate on that. We will be launching the first country programmes in Kigali, on the corridor of east Africa.
Who are you partnering with on the “Internet for All” initiative?
What we are trying to do is not to invent a new programme. It’s under our umbrella; we bring together all the stakeholders that are doing something about it at the moment or intend to do something. We bring them together with government and the civil society so that they can discuss the hurdles before them and how they can leverage one another’s capacity and ability to go further, so that no one is working on his initiative in isolation. We have always faced these challenges on the continent, but when you realise that when people come together and put their strengths together, they devise solutions faster.
How are you able to package the message from the discussions of the elites, who converge at the summits, to the average man on the street whose life you aim to impact positively? And how are you carrying the youth along?
It can appear that these are high level conversations but obviously those big macro-economic concerns when it comes to job creation and economic growth, have a major impact on the population. So these are the questions we discuss in a bid to find out the reforms needed to impact positively on the population as a whole. We discuss what the private sector can do to create jobs and anchor entrepreneurship. Of course I understand the kind of perception one could have when you see these leaders converge, but the thing is you have to engage them. They are the ones that can enact the laws that will create the jobs and open new markets. Over the years, we have tried to be as inclusive as we can and bring in as many people as we can into the conversation. One fact is that 75 percent of our population on the continent are young, so we brainstorm on how we can bring the youth into this conversation, and I hope you are aware of the community of global shapers that the forum created. It comprises people that want to have an impact in their communities and we support them in organising themselves in hubs that have projects. There are over 500 hubs in the world today and there is one in virtually every African country. There is a great hub here in Lagos that I had the pleasure to meet.
The shapers are now a full-blown community of the world economic forum. Some are invited to Davos, others to African meetings. They even have their own meetings which is “shape Africa”, where all the hubs come together. So this is really a time to include the voice of the youths to hear what they have to say; to actually bring them to the table with their leaders to discuss the future which they own. Finally, we also try to make these conversations accessible to most by having live-streamed sessions. We also have a new format called “community conversations”, that takes place outside of the main summit area, and where students or anybody can come and be part of the conversation.
PATRICK ATUANYA and LOLADE AKINMURELE
