Harvard Business School – 2016 Africa Business Conference: SATURDAY

The HBS Africa Business Conference was a little over a month ago and I am now getting to the reflection simply because I was not motivated to write about it so much. In my previous reflection post, I stated I was disappointed in the overall conference because I had high expectations and they were not met.

The theme for the conference was “Unite. Innovate. Disrupt: Homegrown Models for Africa’s Prosperity”, and after the conference I got a chance to debrief with other participants and most of them shared my sentiments – the conference did not appeal to everyone. It seemed as if those who really enjoyed the conference had a strong interest in starting a project or are already working on a project related to the theme of innovation. Comparing the Wharton Africa Business Forum (WABF) to HABC, although the theme at WABF did not directly relate with my professional and personal goals, I was still able to get a lot of valuable information from the conference.

Saturday started with a keynote address from Makhtar Diop, Vice President for Africa, The World Bank. Prior to The World Bank, Mr. Diop worked at the International Monetary Fund and also served as Minister of Economy and Finance of Senegal. In his address, Mr. Diop focused a lot on homegrown innovation, how risk is a big factor for business, and how to the lack of long-term financing prohibits African students currently studying abroad to return back home. Here are two of my favorite quotes (paraphrased) from Mr. Diop:

“Innovation can be achieved through training.”

“Trade is key, however, barriers make it difficult.”

The keynote address was followed by Panel Session 1, which featured nine different panel sessions happening at the same time. I chose to attend “The Art of Side Hustle: Creating Financial Security with Additional Income Streams” because they had an impressive lineup for the panelists and I wanted to learn more about how I could best leverage Samuella’s Kitchen. The first panel session I attended happened to be my favorite session from the entire day and it really set the stage for what I thought would follow.

The panel was moderated by Charles Sekwalor, CEO and Founder of Movemeback and the panelists included: Sarkodie, the fastest rapper in Ghana, Kwame Andah, Co-Founder of Coders4Africa, Nadia Shash, CEO/Managing Director of Co Consulting Group, Nmachi Jidenma, Founder of CP-Africa and Okechukwu Ofili, Founder of okadabooks.com.

For Panel Session 2, I attended “Innovation in Education: Homegrown Models for Africa’s Disadvantaged.” This panel focused on highlighting the dedicated actors working on providing high-quality formal and non-formal affordable education. The panelists were primarily focused on identifying innovative technology-based solutions in order to utilize and transform the delivery of education to marginalized populations.

The panel was moderated by Kehinde Ajayi, Assistant Professor of Economics at Boston University, Craig Heintzman, Founder of Arifu, David Ellis, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Nova Pioneer Group, Mackenzie Colgan, Regional Director of Impact Assets, and Sidee Dlamini, Talent Acquisition for ALU Education.

I was particularly interested in attending this session because when I was in Ghana, I attended John Williams Montessori School and the way we were taught was a bit different from how most US schools did. In JWMS, most of our “learning” was done by memorization and then we were tested on our ability to memorize the information.  Due to limited time and resources, the school authorities did not care so much about comprehending the material. When I moved to the United States, my teachers were interested in learning more about my thoughts on different subjects/topics and it was completely new to me.

After lunch was the Afternoon Keynote – My Takes: The Innovator Within and this session featured Khanyi Dhlomo, Founder and CEO of Ndalo Media, Charles Ifedi, CEO of Verve International, and Ashish J. Thakkar, Executive Chairman, Founder of Mara Sokoni, Mara Group, and Mara Foundation. The trio took turns sharing the stage and they all focused on incremental innovation, political changes, and how to think differently in order to succeed as an entrepreneur.

The next session I attended was “Currency Depreciations and Business: Who are the winners and losers form large currency falls and what can government do about it?” Personally, I felt that this session did not have a lot of content and I felt myself dozing off; probably because I had an early morning and could not keep my eyes open any longer. Whatever the problem might have been, I ended up leaving the session early and took a walk around the campus with a few friends in order to stay awake. When we all met up, we shared the same sentiment and wished the conference had a few breaks in between in order to give participants a chance to recoup and recharge.

After the panel sessions, we had the Career Fair and the Startup Showcase. From the Wharton Africa Business Forum, I knew not to get excited over the companies attending. From my experience, I found that 99% of the companies were looking for people in grad/post grad school and were not offering any internships for undergraduates. I was extremely disappointed because the Career Fair featured well-known companies and I was under the impression that they wanted to hire young talent but they were not really interested in sophomores and juniors in college. You can view a list of the companies in attendance and reach out to them here: HABC 2016 Participating Companies.

At the end of the conference, we had a banquet and an after-party. The Closing & Keynote Address was by H.E. Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda and although I missed most of his speech, most people seemed to have enjoyed his speech and it was a mad house when it was time for him to leave. Lots of people rushed over to him for a photo op and it was still nice to see that even though most people have mixed feelings about him and his policies. The banquet was followed with the after-party and it featured Iyanya and Sarkodie. I was so excited to see Sarkodie perform for the after-party that I actually missed his performance. I know! I waited several months to finally see him perform and in the end I ended up missing it anyway. I guess better luck next time for me!

Stay adventurous, dear friends, and always remember to stay golden. All ways, always.

Sincerely,

Samuella

As always, here are a few pictures from Saturday’s festivities:

Morning Keynote Address with Makhtar Diop, VP for Africa, The World Bank

Mr. Makhtar Diop

With Michael Owusu Addo aka Sarkodie

Moderator and Panelists for the Innovation in Education: Homegrown Models for Africa’s Disadvantaged Session

Made new friends from the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS)