#GoogleForNigeria: 5 lessons about the future of Africa

So I was at the #GoogleForNigeria event for about an hour today. As with all things Google, the atmosphere was charged, the venue breathed innovation and excellence oozed all over the place.
Africa is precious, and everybody except us (most of us), seems to realize that. Here are the 5 things that stood out to me in the 60 minutes I spent there;
1. Africa would join the current technology wave and the probability that we would skip the industrial and agricultural age is high.
2. The ground breaking innovations the world would experience in the next 10- 20 years would come from Africa. Primarily because a huge chunk of the ‘ real problems’ is here.
3. Foreign investment into Africa is not reducing. Foreign aid to NGO’s might be reducing but investments are growing exponentially. Check out this report
4. Everyone is watching us. If we are not careful, we wouldn’t own this future. According to Quartz, African startups raised over $366 million in 2016, I’m sure a huge chunk of that didn’t come from local investors. There’s nothing wrong with external investments, we just need to make sure we own a sizeable stake in the future we’re building.
5. The ability for our ‘hyped burgeoning’ youth population to access opportunities and what they make of it can make or mar this future. To put this into perspective; About 70% of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa is below 30, of these, over 89 million are out of school, according to the World Bank. We need to shun the hype and focus on empowering the people who would drive this future.

My key takeaway is this paraphrased quote by the visionary Oby Ezekwesili;
Africa would be the center of innovation in the future — Oby Ezekwesili
Yes, there’s a lot to be done, Yes, there are a lot of opportunities and Yes, we have to continue consolidating on the momentum we are building. #AfricatotheWorld. I’m ready for the challenge, are you?
Working on something epic? Let’s talk @sanifrancis
