Africa: The New Industrial Frontier - Helen Hai points the way
Global perspective about Continental Africa is often incomplete, flawed and reflects a deliberate, entitled, tiresome, sweeping, base ignorance about Africa. Recently, Caroline Broue, a French journalist asked the novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie if people in Nigeria read her work, to which the writer replied, "They do shockingly." From there, she decided to ask "Are there bookshops in Nigeria?"
Chimamanda's epic reply has garnered a lot of encomiums across social media, and millennials consider it to be the classic clap-back for the entitled and ignorant class of people, who have deliberately refused to update their knowledge about emerging Africa. The rising continent of which Kingsley Moghalu, a political economist, aptly describes as, "the global economy's last frontier."
In this TEDxBeijing Talk, Helen Hai, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization Goodwill Ambassador for industrialization in Africa, brings out the often overlooked side of Africa through three personal stories. Helen explains why she chose Ethiopia, which ranked 125th in World Bank Doing Business Report at the time, as the location to start a shoe factory. Secondly, the problems she encountered when doing business in Africa. Lastly, how her childhood experiences triggered her to help Ethiopia find the right path of development, and change the lives of many local people. CEO of the Made in Africa Initiative, which advises the governments of Ethiopia, Rwanda and Senegal for industrialization and investment promotion. Ambassador Hai is Co-Founder of C&H Garments, which is a pioneer Pan-African export-oriented garments manufacturer with presence in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Senegal. Ambassador Hai was trained as an actuary in the United Kingdom with 15 years of international experience in FTSE100 companies. She served previously as Vice President and Chief Actuary for Zurich Financial Services in China, and a Partner in Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group in London. Ambassador Hai was named a 2015 Global Young Leader by World Economic Forum and received the 2015 African Business Icon Award.
Chimamanda's epic reply has garnered a lot of encomiums across social media, and millennials consider it to be the classic clap-back for the entitled and ignorant class of people, who have deliberately refused to update their knowledge about emerging Africa. The rising continent of which Kingsley Moghalu, a political economist, aptly describes as, "the global economy's last frontier."
In this TEDxBeijing Talk, Helen Hai, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization Goodwill Ambassador for industrialization in Africa, brings out the often overlooked side of Africa through three personal stories. Helen explains why she chose Ethiopia, which ranked 125th in World Bank Doing Business Report at the time, as the location to start a shoe factory. Secondly, the problems she encountered when doing business in Africa. Lastly, how her childhood experiences triggered her to help Ethiopia find the right path of development, and change the lives of many local people. CEO of the Made in Africa Initiative, which advises the governments of Ethiopia, Rwanda and Senegal for industrialization and investment promotion. Ambassador Hai is Co-Founder of C&H Garments, which is a pioneer Pan-African export-oriented garments manufacturer with presence in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Senegal. Ambassador Hai was trained as an actuary in the United Kingdom with 15 years of international experience in FTSE100 companies. She served previously as Vice President and Chief Actuary for Zurich Financial Services in China, and a Partner in Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group in London. Ambassador Hai was named a 2015 Global Young Leader by World Economic Forum and received the 2015 African Business Icon Award.
Comments
Post a Comment