PARTNERSHIP ACCELERATOR REPORT - YOUTH AGENCY, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, AND CAPACITY BUILDING IN AFRICA PARTNERSHIP ACCELERATOR - Concordia Summit
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Spotlights Highlights
Partnership Accelerator Data Points Regulation & Political Incentives
A Letter to our Community Driving Investor Decision Making
Entrepreneurial Capacity Building
The Role of Digital
PARTNERSHIP ACCELERATOR REPORT
YOUTH AGENCY, ENTREPRENEURSHIP,
AND CAPACITY BUILDING IN AFRICA
PARTNERSHIP ACCELERATOR
March 5, 2020 | Lagos, Nigeria
Partnerships For Social Impact About Concordia Africa Concordia Africa Founding Sponsor: Officially launched at the 2018 Annual Summit, Concordia Africa aims to foster, elevate, and sustain cross- sector partnerships for social impact on the African continent. Shaped and driven by local stakeholders, the initiative strives to build sustainable, scalable, and inclusive partnerships towards positive economic and social impact among governments, the private sector, and civil society. By providing an international platform for elevating African voices and priorities on a global scale, Concordia Africa endeavors to adopt a new approach to convening on African development. Traversing topics ranging from youth agency and employment to entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, trade, and infrastructure, Concordia aims to provide a stable, inclusive, and diplomatic space to explore opportunities for innovation and catalytic impact across the continent. Concordia looks to host its inaugural Concordia Africa Summit in November 2020 in Kigali, Rwanda. This summit will bring together Concordia’s global community and network to engage with stakeholders from across the continent, ranging from entrepreneurs to public sector leaders, business executives, and civil society groups. Thematic emphases will include youth agency and employment solutions, financial inclusion, and entrepreneurship and local strategies, along with related topics such as the role of digital, education and training, diaspora engagement, trade, infrastructure, and investment. To learn more, or to inquire about Programming Partnership and Sponsorship Opportunities, visit: www.concordia.net/africa *Next Steps ref lect day-of discussion and key inputs participants could supply, but are not binding in nature and do not necessarily ref lect organizational commitments moving forward.
Youth Agency, Entrepreneurship, and Capacity
Building in Africa Partnership Accelerator
Table of Contents
Partnership Accelerator Data Points 4
A Letter to our Community 5
Regulation & Political Incentives 6-9
Driving Investor Decision Making 10 -11
Entrepreneurial Capacity Building 12 - 13
The Role of Digital 14 - 15
Sponsors
Youth Agency, Entrepreneurship, and Capacity Building in Africa Partnership Accelerator
Partnership Accelerator Data Points
Country Representation Sector Representation
Connection Potential Partnership
4
A Letter to our Community
| Concordia was pleased to host its first-ever event on joining an innovation hub tour led by Olatunbosun
the African continent in Lagos, Nigeria this March Alake, Special Advisor to the Lagos Governor on
on the subject of youth agency, entrepreneurship, Innovation & Technology, and learning about the
and capacity building. This event represented an Lagos Innovation Master Plan, as well as attending
important milestone for our organization in terms a reception with graduates of SME.NG’s Ebi Fund
of growth and scale. Whilst deliberating how best to Beneficiaries and its The Funding Space pitch
move Concordia Africa forward in advance of our competition winners. Thanks to these opportunities,
inaugural Africa Summit, scheduled for November I saw firsthand the range of innovation and
2020 in Kigali, Rwanda, there was unanimity on the entrepreneurship taking hold in Lagos, and the depth
role of partnerships in creating a bright future for of public and private support for such endeavors. In
a young and growing workforce. Building on past planning and executing the Partnership Accelerator,
strategic dialogues at the 2018 and 2019 Annual I further confirmed the critical role of cross-sector
Summits, and the 2019 Partnership Accelerator that collaboration in connecting impactful but disparate
took place in London, UK, we had plenty of ideas initiatives towards a holistic, inclusive, and wide-
to unpack around how partnerships could uniquely reaching response. While many of the Accelerator
address local, national, and regional challenges facing participants represented Lagos or Nigeria initiatives,
entrepreneurs and investors in Africa. Importantly, it was encouraging to see the regional thinking
we selected the format of a Partnership Accelerator to and visions of scale throughout the conversation,
advance this conversation set within the Concordia ensuring that this Partnership Accelerator offered
Community. This fast-paced and action-oriented ideas to be carried forth in other Afican states and
format is expertly designed to add dynamism and regions.
urgency to the discussion. Participants share at least This event’s success hinged on the authenticity and
one innovative idea, model, or initiative relevant to collaborative spirit of its participants, each selected
the selected theme, with the intention of directing due to their unique individual or organizational
future action in a consistent, coordinated, and role in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. It was made
concrete manner. The ultimate goal is to broker possible with support from the Africa Fintech
and/or catalyze partnership opportunities around Foundry and SME.NG, and we are grateful to our
specific themes, which Concordia and its Partnership sponsors for not only supporting the event, but for
Development Department will dedicate its efforts having leadership join these discussions, as well.
towards supporting in the months leading up to the So, what comes next? Concordia is issuing a call to
Concordia Africa Summit and beyond. action for its community, based on the ideas and
Landing in Lagos reaffirmed that we had the right next steps in this report. Many of these ideas—
topic in the right location. Not only is Nigeria and others not listed—will be carried forth by the
the largest economy on the continent, but it is participants directly. Others will be supported by
widely considered to be an African leader in the Concordia’s Partnership Development Department,
entrepreneurial space. Lagos serves as an epicenter and we welcome additional participation from
of activity, with hundreds of capacity-building organizations, foundations, companies, and public
support organizations, foundations, co-working officials poised to help turn an idea into fruition or
spaces, government initiatives, and research scale it to a new region. I invite you to join us in this
organizations offering financial and infrastructure endeavor, and help us launch new partnerships at the
& business development support, professional 2020 Concordia Africa Summit this fall in Kigali! ◆
services, and policy advocacy. I had the pleasure of
Hanne Dalmut
Director of Partnership Development
Concordia
5
6
Regulation & Political Incentives
Regulation & Political Incentives
Political systems play a critical role in creating open and
unrestricted environments that support entrepreneurs and
job creation.
| Political systems play a critical role in creating strengthening the innovation ecosystem1. These new
open and unrestricted environments that support funds and plans rely on tested government initiatives,
entrepreneurs and job creation. From designing leveraging the Bank of Industry, the Lagos State
curriculum and enabling an entrepreneurial mindset Employment Trust Fund (LESTF), the Presidential
to building a pipeline of ventures, to shaping an Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC),
ecosystem that supports young businesses and the Enabling Business Environment Secretariat
their leadership, and to signaling to the investment (EBES), and others in a coordinated manner for
community along all stages that investor risk is worth holistic, transformational growth.
the financial reward, the government is an important
stakeholder in supporting entrepreneurship. The
African Free Trade Agreement offers an opportunity
to enhance the regulatory environment across the
“I do think that if the government
continent, cataloguing export and import policies gets the private sector to fully
and their inf luence on the ease of business for early- integrate into the [Lagos Innovation
stage entrepreneurs across states and addressing
Master Plan], that can also aid its
choke points at scale. Against this backdrop, the
Nigerian Federal Government, alongside state and success and continuity. Also, setting
local governments, has taken significant steps to up a structure that makes it easy for
address the demand for entrepreneurial support by startups to easily access the resources
its citizens. For example, in January of this year the
Nigeria Finance Bill was signed into law, which offers
provided in the plan will go a long
easing in the tax system for early-stage companies way.”
and those under a certain revenue threshold. And
Job Adeleke Oyebisi
in February, the Federal Government announced
a $268 million fund for Nigerian innovators and Founder of FarmCorps
entrepreneurs, with a focus on technological
innovation and agriculture enterprises. Similarly, the
Lagos State Government is unrolling an Innovation However, these political systems have yet to
& Technology Master Plan to address access, talent, fully address significant barriers facing the
infrastructure, and funding gaps essential to entrepreneurial ecosystem in Lagos and across
the region, and existing solutions have been too
narrow to be widely accessed. The participants,
who focused their conversation on what might
1
“Lagos Innovation Master Plan” https://
lagosinnovationmasterplan.ng/
create the greatest good for the largest number
7
Youth Agency, Entrepreneurship, and Capacity Building in Africa Partnership Accelerator
of entrepreneurs, identified problematic policies support business development, as well as resources
at multiple stages of MSME growth: the national on owning and operating businesses, was called for.
curriculum has overemphasized formal education By creating a ‘one stop shop’ that can be digitally
at the expense of vocational and technical training, accessed regardless of location or sector, a number
and ignored the need to connect learned skills with of the daily hurdles to business owners could be
a mentality and clear picture towards job creation addressed. In keeping with the focus on impact
opportunities. This has limited the entrepreneurial at scale, participants reiterated that this solution
pipeline and failed to address Nigeria’s ‘youth bulge’ must be explicitly designed to benefit general
at scale. Those that do move in an entrepreneurial entrepreneurs and not just those with sophisticated
direction are met with a challenging infrastructure business acumen, deep financial pockets, or
and operating environment in terms of power, experiences in order to differentiate itself from the
transportation, and energy quality, consistency & existing, bespoke services already in place. ◆
cost. And finally, those that persevere to ownership
face a political enabling environment that seems at Next steps:*
war with the very industry the government is looking
• NAACMI, Adam Smith International, the Lagos
to build. There is a need for political reform on the
State Employment Trust Fund, and others will
ease of doing business (launching and registering
work collectively on the development of a digital
businesses, accessing new and larger markets),
repository for information on government- and
taxation (clarifying and coordinating taxation at
private sector-led initiatives
federal, state & local level is essential as there is
currently a high liability for startups, which can • The LSETF will lead a process to inform policy
scare off investors who are conducting diligence), on reducing the cost of doing business, through
and industry regulation (bloated bureaucracy, a specific campaign to train entrepreneurs
policy inconsistencies, and bottlenecks can cause on collective action, and advocacy rights and
long delays in product launches or require hyper- methods
specialized expertise, which not all businesses can
afford). At the same time, there is a need to teach and Table Lead:
empower entrepreneurs and organized bodies on
• Tariye Gbadegesin, Managing Director &
how to effectively advocate at the local and national
Chief Investment Officer; ARM-Harith
level for specific regulatory change.
Infrastructure Investments Ldt
In Nigeria, there is a perception of two levels of
entrepreneurs, with the current process functioning
Participants:
only for ‘sophisticated’ entrepreneurs, leaving a
large number of MSMEs underrepresented and • Molade Adeniyi, CEO; WAVE Academies
underserviced. Participants identified improved • Abosede Alimi, Director; Lagos State
communication, within the government itself as Employment Trust Fund
well as with external private and MSME audiences, • Olawale Anifowose, General Manager,
as essential. Initiatives like the National Assembly Programs and Partnerships; Enterprise
Business Roundtable with Private Sector (led Development Center of Lagos Business School
by Adam Smith International) or the Nigerian
Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, • Madeleine Cashin, Deputy Director; Insider
Mines & Agriculture (NACCIMA) create pathways • Meghan Curran, West Africa Director; Acumen
for MSMEs and state and national government • Queen Nwokonneya, Manager; Adam Smith
leaders to come together around concrete policy International
development and implementation, but the group
• Barr. Dele Oye, Second Deputy President;
believed these conversations need to be widened to
Nigerian Association of Chambers of
a broader set of entrepreneurs and that information
Commerce, Industry, Mines & Agriculture
key to business development must be democratized
in order to fully address bottlenecks affecting • Job Oyebisi, Founder; FarmCorps
‘mass’ entrepreneurs. A digital repository for • Olukunle Sobode, Youth President, Western
government- and private sector-led initiatives that Zone; Nigeria YMCA (notetaker)
8
Regulation & Political Incentives
9
Driving Investor Decision Making
From Kenya’s Sokowatch to Nigeria’s Bamboo, there is
increasing evidence to the global investment community
that, under the right conditions, Africa is ‘open for business’
and a lucrative investment opportunity.
| African entrepreneurs have enjoyed a series of investment environment into which they’re entering.
high-profile investment rounds in the last several Nigeria leads the continent in terms of VC funding,
years. From Kenya’s Sokowatch to Nigeria’s Bamboo, with 37% of tech VA investment in 2019 going to
there is increasing evidence to the global investment Africa’s most populated country1 . Other countries
community that, under the right conditions, Africa garnering significant investment funding include
is ‘open for business’ and a lucrative investment Egypt, Kenya, and South Africa. But these numbers
opportunity. This opportunity is being matched by an don’t ref lect some of the significant challenges
increasing number of indigenous and international facing the ecosystem, as identified by participants.
funds setting sites on African innovations. However,
much more needs to be done to expand and diversify
investments across the innovation landscape, 1
“The Partech Africa Report Is Here, and It’s the Best Yet.”
and this requires a deeper understanding of the Partech, partechpartners.com/news/2019-partech-africa-report-
here-and-its-best-yet-us-2-02-b-raised/.
decision-making calculus held by investors and the
10Driving Investor Decision Making
More can be done to enhance capacity and encourage to identify gaps and fortify the ecosystem. Steps
investments into female- and indigenous-owned towards this include targeted convenings, the
businesses—in 2019 only 6.9% of deals and 2.9% creation of standard templates and information-
of invested capital went to all-female founding sharing frameworks that can be widely adopted,
teams 2 — and deal f low should be informed and and possibly creating a database to house collected
structured around local context. Local investors information. ◆
or partners are essential to understanding and
navigating that local context. Like other regions,
Next steps:*
there is an endemic mismatch in investment size and
a lack of concessionary grants resulting in a ‘missing • SME.NG, AVPA, ANDE, Concordia and others
middle’ pool for MSMEs. And finally, the discussion will leverage their networks and platforms to
centered on the importance of investor education convene a wider diversity of investors, and more
and networked pipeline sharing to support the most collaboratively share findings and data
innovative and scalable businesses. • Collectively build database of key investment
data points to accurately paint a picture of
trends, opportunities, gaps, and best practices
“The African Development Bank Table Lead:
(AfDB) reports that there is currently • Thelma Ekiyor, Managing Director, SME.NG
a $42 billion financing gap to women
entrepreneurs. Gender Lens Investing Participants:
is not a fad for investors in Africa, • Joshua Adedeji, Program Manager; ANDE West
Africa
it is imperative for economic growth
• Toyin Adegbite-Moore, Executive Director,
and inclusion.” African Venture Philanthropy Alliance
Thelma Ekiyor • Adedolapo Ayoola, Acting Chairman; Nigeria
Managing Director of SME.NG YMCA (notetaker)
• Nathalie Gogue-Ebo, Principal; Open Capital
• Ebenezer Nii Martey, Co-Founder;
As in other areas, strengthening connectivity within AYEESummit
the investment ecosystem is a critical first step in
• Eloho (Omame) Gihan-Mbelu, founding
addressing many of these challenges. Enhanced
Managing Director and CEO; Endeavor Nigeria
communication and data sharing, and the conscious
creation of space for everyone, will be essential • Adenike Sheriff, Co-founder & Chief of Staff;
Future Africa
• Affiong Williams, Founder & CEO; ReelFruit
2
Edwards, Dave. “Venture Capital’s Agonizingly Slow Progress
toward Gender Balance.” Quartz, 2 Feb. 2020, qz.com/1795681/
women-owned-venture-capital-firms-are-finally-on-the-rise/.
11Entrepreneurial Capacity Building
The supply and demand sides of entrepreneurial education
are changing in Africa, in the face of population growth,
employment trends, and global market pressures.
| The supply and demand sides of entrepreneurial role of education-based partnerships in building an
education are changing in Africa, in the face of inclusive and resilient pipeline.
population growth, employment trends, and global Accepting on face value that financing is a near-
market pressures. At the same time, indigenous ubiquitous challenge for entrepreneurs, participants
and multinational businesses require top-level quickly moved to the role of education and its
local talent to grow and scale their presence. But current failings to prepare Nigerian youth for an
in the face of population growth, employment entrepreneurial career, or success in the workplace.
trends, and global market pressures, how does Traditional rote education has broadly created a
the entrepreneurial support ecosystem widen its foundation of ‘hard skills’, enabling Nigerians to be
impact, in order to advance not only the skills of successful in the STEM side of ideation. Generally,
entrepreneurs, but a workforce more generally? What participants felt Nigerians held knowledge on how
role do employers and job seekers play in shaping to run a local business. However, gaps in soft-skill
the skills development agenda? This table tackled training, to include presentation and communication
the entrepreneurial value chain and the critical skills, business and workplace etiquette, and—
12Entrepreneurial Capacity Building
perhaps most important—critical thinking skills, Next steps:*
are pervasive at every education stage and limiting • Further map entrepreneurial value chain
an entrepreneur’s ability to test ideas, attract players and resources alongside entrepreneurial
funding, or scale businesses. These gaps also make needs to create a living, digital resource to
finding workforce talent a challenge. Participants support entrepreneurs and ecosystem support
agreed more needed to be done to inf luence primary organizations in Nigeria
and secondary education to include soft-skills
training in the long term, and immediate short-term Table Lead:
interventions were needed for today’s generation
• Chika Uwazie, Founder, Career Queen
joining the workforce.
A secondary challenge existed within the youth
Participants:
mindset itself. Participants believe there to be a culture
that values immediate success over foundational • Kingsley Bangwell, Founder; Youngstars
skills building. Youth don’t want to ‘crawl before Foundation
walking’, and are unwilling to take advantage of core • Istifanus Bosan, National Chairman; Nigeria
skills development and professional opportunities YMCA
that support their professional journey. Internships
• Patricia Obozuwa, Chief Communications &
and apprenticeships—widely used throughout
Public Affairs Officer; GE Africa
the world to prepare entry-level workforce to be
successful in their chosen profession—are not as • Olusola Olakanmi, Director of Business
common in Nigeria. However, many success stories, Development; Mastercard
at least from the Igbo tribe, can be linked by the • Ndifreke Okwuegbunam, Head of Programs;
role of apprenticeship. Participants spoke about how ACT Foundation
to leverage these success stories to start shifting
• Dorcas Babalola Oyewunmi; Nigeria YMCA
perceptions around workforce and foundational
(notetaker)
skills development.
Participants used this discussion to identify points of • Olusegun Adeniyi, Head; Africa Fintech
alignment and potential collaboration, overcoming Foundry
previously-siloed work towards strengthening the • Adu Ajibola; Nigeria YMCA (notetaker)
entrepreneurial value chain. From early education
• Hon. Jefferson Koijee, Mayor; City of Monrovia
(Youngstars Foundation) to early-stage startup
support (led by groups like ACT Foundation • Ifeoma Okafor-Obi; Tony Elumelu Foundation
and Tony Elumelu Foundation) and mid-stage • Pearl Uzokwe, Governance & Sustainability
development (GE Garage, Sahara Group), and Director; Sahara Group
beyond (African Fintech Foundry), programmatic
coordination and general pipeline awareness can
support entrepreneurs as they progress. ◆
13The Role of Digital
The advance of digital connectivity in Africa has been
a catalyst to entrepreneurship on the continent, driving
both innovation and growth, and many believe it cannot
be extracted from a conversation on strengthening the
entrepreneurial ecosystem.
| The advance of digital connectivity in Africa has the Internet, and is poised for strong innovation
been a catalyst to entrepreneurship on the continent, due to public measures like the mandatory National
driving both innovation and growth, and many Identity Number (NIN). This table was dedicated to
believe it cannot be extracted from a conversation further defining the role of digital in strengthening
on strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem. entrepreneurial ecosystems, and testing whether key
The African Leapfrog Index (ALI), an initiative led inputs like those identified by ALI in Nigeria are
by the Tufts Fletcher School, the Mastercard Impact sufficient to the scale of Africa’s challenge.
Fund, and the Mastercard Center for Inclusive
Growth, which measures digital momentum
along other demographic characteristics, maps
African countries in terms of strengths and gaps 1 . 1
Chakravorti, Bhaskar, and Ravi Shankar Chaturvedi. “Research:
How Technology Could Promote Growth in 6 African Countries.”
According to ALI, Nigeria leads Africa as a startup Harvard Business Review, 7 Jan. 2020, hbr.org/2019/12/research-
destination in part because of the affordability of how-technology-could-promote-growth-in-6-african-countries.
14The Role of Digital
Private and NGO sector participants representing Next steps:*
the push and pull of the entrepreneurial ecosystem • MindtheGap will design a job placement portal
accepted that access to information and the Internet that helps link demand and supply, taking into
is increasingly recognized as a global human account skills matching, encouraging others to
right, and that more needs to be done by national share hiring needs and opportunities. The AfDB
governments and the private sector to reduce access will look into supporting the model’s scale
costs, democratize this right, and bring online last
• FATE Foundation and Microsoft Africa will work
mile users 2 . Participants explored digital access as a
together to address an absence in core business
central inf luencer of employability in a conversation
skills, piloting new Microsoft productivity tools
that quickly centered on a central thesis: ‘access’ and
with MSMEs that would benefit from such
‘appropriate usage’ was not a guaranteed sequence
support (simultaneously supporting Microsoft’s
for African entrepreneurs, and the right political
commitment to refine and improve on product
and digital infrastructure alone could not guarantee
offerings)
a comprehensive response.
Ultimately, participants believed a powerful Table Lead:
linkage was missing that enables entrepreneurs to • Uyoyo Edosio, Senior Innovation & Human
think critically about challenges and solutions. As Capital Expert, African Development Bank
one participant said, “it’s one thing to have a skill;
Participants:
it’s another thing to know how to apply it”.
This table called for a rapid focus on design thinking • Adenike Adeyemi, Executive Director; FATE
training to accompany the already-strong skills Foundation
development underway in countries like Nigeria, • Israel Oladejo, Operations Manager; Visiola
recommending that every technological or business Foundation
skills training workshop include a component on
• Chika Ekeji, Associate Partner; McKinsey & Co
design thinking to support scalable application
of the skill. This critical thinking and visioning • Odeajo Israel, World Change Agent; Nigeria
capacity would best enable entrepreneurs to hone YMCA (notetaker)
technology as a tool for business and better build • Rachel Macauley, Senior Programme Officer;
a quality pipeline of MSMEs, and ultimately help OCP North America
answer the ‘What next?’ question facing digitally-
• Tayo Olosunde, Founder & Executive Director;
skilled youth in a limited job market. ◆
Mindthegap
• Soromfe Uzomah, Head of Strategic Partnerships;
Microsoft Africa
2
For more on this subject, see the 2019 Concordia Annual
Summit Report: https://www.concordia.net/newsroom/
blog/2019-annual-summit-report/
15office@concordia.net | www.concordia.net | @concordiasummit
You can also read
