Akinwumi Adesina, the president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) says 6,500 new tech start-ups have been established in Africa with $2.27 billion investments in 2019, compared to 2015 which had 3,500 tech-related ventures and $1 billion in venture capital.
Adesina said start-ups are emerging in Africa while urging universities to deepen entrepreneurship programmes, develop structured institutional arrangements for supporting innovations to expand the growth of start-ups, enable graduates become entrepreneurs, create businesses, and become job creators rather than job hunters.
The AfDB president who made this call while delivering a convocation speech at Bowen University Iwo at the weekend, expressed concern that youths are today graduating into a world of uncertainty as there are few white-collar jobs available. He stated that over 13 million people enter the job markets each year but only 3 million get jobs.
According to him, Africa will have the largest number of youths joining the labour market by 2030 than all the world taken together.
While stressing on entrepreneurship to secure the future of youths and curb unemployment, Adesina said the agricultural sector was an important area ripe for entrepreneurship. According to him, the size of food and agribusiness in Africa will be worth $1 trillion by 2030.
He also said the continent’s Internet of Things (IOT) is estimated to be $12.6 billion by 2021 in Africa and Middle East, and financing for Big Data start-ups inched to $9.8 million by 2019.
“How many students here have taken courses on entrepreneurship? How many even know about venture capital or angel investors?” he queried
Adesina, therefore, urged universities to shift away from rote teaching into allowing students to experiment, try things, put ideas to work, and innovate.
“Today, I ask you to add new skills, entrepreneurship, and make the university not just about knowledge, but about transformative knowledge, one that is enabled to create the next great businesses for the word.
“Transformative knowledge is best captured by the World Economic Forum on Human Capital: The Knowledge and skills people possess that enable them to create value in the global economic system,” he added.
In fostering a path to the future for entrepreneurship and universities, the AfDB president recommended that universities set up technology business incubator and innovation hubs and should be connected to venture capital and angel investors.
Adesina urged governments to set up financial systems that support young people and specifically set up youth entrepreneurship investment banks that will be run by the youth and for the youth.
He further called on Nigeria to set up a National Science and Innovation Fund and devote about 20 percent of its oil earnings to driving innovation for the faster tech-enabled growth of Nigeria to power the Nigerian economy.
