At the 2024 Annual meeting, I was invited to speak on a panel titled, “Investing in Africa’s Next Generation.”
What I focused on, in summary: We have pioneered a scalable financial instrument that democratizes access to global education and upskilling by African students and learners. Given global demographic dynamics, this work of accelerating brain circulation from the African continent into global innovation ecosystems and needs to scale into one of the pathways creating the innovation workforce for the 21st century.
In more detail:
Africa is underrepresented in global innovation ecosystems in sectors ranging from technology to climate, as a result of which the continent does not participate in the building of the future.
Because of the absence, negative stereotypes about the brilliance of Africans and people persist.
Global innovation ecosystems are best accessible through the pathway of global education, but global degrees and credentials are too costly for most households, scholarships are insufficient to meet demand, and education loan products are largely unavailable, due to the perceived risk of unlocking capital to enable global labor and education mobility.
But there is a contradiction. On the one hand, we sing the praises of the globally educated, labor-market-connected African: we count the remittances, create fintech to facilitate the movement of their money back home, remind the world that the diaspora sends more money than official development assistance and foreign direct investments combined, and share with pride how they make the continent look good in surveys on the earning levels and education attainment of African diasporas, and revere and lay claim to those who rise to lead global organizations. On the other hand, we do not want to be seen to be supporting their mobility into global education, because doing so encourages brain-drain – a concept I have argued is harmful, patronizing, and ought to be retired in favor of brain circulation.
Do you know what proportion of African entrepreneurs who raised more than $1m for their startups – which also create jobs on the continent much in need of those – had a degree from a foreign university (mostly US and UK)?
The answer is more than two thirds, and in some contexts, more than 9 in 10. Test your knowledge here.
