Afreximbank
President Prof. Benedict Oramah delivering the 14th Convocation
Lecture at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria
The
new Africa presents the continent’s youth with an excellent
battleground to join and wage the economic struggle that will finally
liberate Africa, Prof. Benedict Oramah, President of the African
Export-import Bank (Afreximbank) has said.
Speaking
on Wednesday on the topic “Unleashing the Power of the Youth”
while delivering the 14th Convocation Lecture of the Nnamdi Azikiwe
University (UniZik) in Awka, Nigeria, Prof. Oramah said, “just as
Africa’s political struggle was led by the youth, so will the youth
lead the way for Africa’s economic emancipation”.
Youths represented
agents of change across the social, political and economic spectra
and history and contemporary evidence had shown that they had always
been the catalyst to economic transformation, constituting the
largest proportion of the labour force and the population at the
height of the industrial revolutions in the advance countries, he
said.
“History
has shown that where the youth are given the opportunity, they have
been the force for positive change,” noted Prof. Oramah who added
that he considered the youth to be Africa’s greatest resource, “an
asset much more valuable than all the oil and solid minerals we so
frequently celebrate”.
He
quoted the statement by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the former President of
Nigeria after whom the university was named, that, “The immediate
aim of African education should be to develop character, initiative,
and ability of the youth of the country, so that they may be
reliable, useful, and intelligent in the rapidly changing life and
circumstances of their own people. …….. Anything narrower than
this must lead to a stagnant and menacing flood of unemployed and
unemployable youth.”
Prof.
Oramah noted that the ubiquitous social media platforms, Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram; Tech companies such as Apple and Microsoft;
and e-commerce platforms, including Amazon and Alibaba; were founded
by people in their youth.
Youth-powered
digital businesses accounted for about two-thirds of the U.S.
economy, one-third of the Chinese economy and eight per cent of the
Indian economy, he added, saying that those companies were bigger in
value than many African economies.
Despite
limited opportunities, however, Africa's youth was beginning to make
important contributions to economic transformation on the continent,
said Prof. Oramah. The African versions of Steve Job, Mark
Zuckerberg, Alexander McQueen and Calvin Klein were rising like the
Phoenix while others, like Aliko Dangote, Tony Elumelu, Lily Alfonso
and Njideka Akunyili-Crosby, all started making impact in their
various endeavours as youth.
Prof
Oramah cited Ndubuisi Eze, a young drone expert who was identified by
Singaporean investors at the inaugural Intra-African Trade Fair in
Cairo in 2018 and, subsequently, relocated to Singapore where he was
able to get support to develop his company and now produces and
exports drones to global markets.
Prof.
Oramah also highlighted the Nigerian youth-led entertainment industry
which is making significant gains and inroads into the global scene
and noted that Afreximbank had recently announced a $500 million
Creative Industry Financing Facility which was available to operators
in the full spectrum of Africa’s creative sector. That facility was
expected to boost youth participation in the African creative
economy.
Prof.
Oramah urged the youth to be prepared to take advantage of emerging
opportunities under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)
and announced that Afreximbank had launched a number of initiatives
and programmes to support African economies and the youth to maximize
the benefits of the AfCFTA. Those included an
incubation lab being put in place to support innovation and help
bring innovative products to market.
Prof.
Oramah paid tribute to the leaders whose visions made UniZik
possible, including Chief Jim Nwobodo and Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, two
former governors of Nigeria’s Anambra State, and former Nigerian
President Ibrahim Babangida under whose leadership the former Anambra
State University of Science and Technology was renamed Nnamdi Azikiwe
University and made a federal university.
Prof.
Oramah also paid tribute to Dr. Azikiwe, who was Governor General of
Nigeria from 1960 to 1963 and President from 1963 to 1966, saying
that he was a freedom fighter who devoted his youth and entire life
towards the emancipation of Africa in general and Nigeria in
particular.
“He
was fearless in his struggle, knew no boundaries in his scope and
leveraged his legendary intellectual capacity to overcome the most
complex of challenges. He understood the importance of education in
the struggle for Africa’s renaissance. His passion
for scholarship and Africa’s emancipation - what he stood for and
his fulfilled life lived - presents us with an armour to engage in
the complex battles of today,” said the Afreximbank President.
Earlier,
Prof. Rasheed Abubakar, Executive
Secretary of Nigeria’s National Universities Commission and
Chairman of the Convocation Lecture, introduced Prof. Oramah,
describing him as “one of the
greatest minds” and saying that his lecture would stress the
primacy of education.
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