\n
He also says the time to criticize the U.S. for not engaging the continent sooner has passed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should welcome the fact that the journey has finally begun. I like the nature of the imagined engagement between Africa and America. President Obama\u2019s visit to Africa last year was the starting point,\u201d Elumelu says. \u201cThe fact that they have realized the need to engage with Africa at the scale and magnitude that they are going about it now is welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
His foundation is also playing its part in reaching out to minority and women-owned businesses. \u201cThe Tony Elumelu Foundation will launch an entrepreneurship program with 100 million dollars that will touch 10,000 entrepreneurs across Africa and the United States,\u201d he says. \u201cWe will train and mentor them and create platforms for them to have commercial business engagements.\u201d<\/p>\n
To expatiate, Elumelu notes how much preparation, time, and money it took to host an event of such scale and magnitude in the capital city of the United States. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like everything stopped momentarily or temporarily for this event,\u201d he says. \u201cIt has a signalling impact. It says to all policy makers in America, and those not on the leadership level that Africa is important to this country. Even the U.S. Secretary of State was in attendance considering the situation in the middle east reaching a boiling point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elumelu and Obama share a singular belief: If access to electricity is provided to Sub-Saharan Africa, it would accelerate development across the region. It is a belief that has propelled him to make several speeches on the matter including addressing the United Nations and the United States Congress.<\/p>\n
Addressing the audience and U.S. House Representatives at an event at the summit hosted by Congressman\u00a0Gregory Meeks<\/strong>\u00a0titled, \u201cA Dialogue With African CEOs\u201d that brought together women and minority business owners, CEOs from across Africa and U.S., and SME entrepreneurs, Elumelu said he understood that members of Congress had genuine differences, but he urged them to consider a more dire big picture.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe also understand that the nearly two million people dying from the effects of fire cooking every year; the millions of tons harvests rotting from lack of power for processing, preservation and transportation; the 90 million kids who can\u2019t study at night; and the staggering rates of unemployment on the continent, are much bigger than your differences.\u201d<\/p>\n
BlackEnterprise.com<\/strong>\u00a0asked Elumelu why there wasn\u2019t a larger contingent of small business owners at the summit as opposed to the plethora of representatives from big corporations from the various sectors of U.S. industries.<\/p>\nElumelu acknowledged that more needed to be done to welcome the little guy, listing three pillars to drive the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises. They include:<\/p>\n
The various governments playing larger roles:<\/strong><\/p>\nGovernment should help to create an enabling environment that would support the growth of SME\u2019s. SME\u2019s in Africa like they say, start in the morning and die in the evening. We need to correct that. The reason this happens is because of the lack of an enabling environment. That\u2019s the part government has to play.<\/p>\n
The private sector needs to engage:<\/strong><\/p>\nWe all have a role to play. Financial institutions should [have] access to finance for SME\u2019s. We should understand that access isn\u2019t necessarily just commercial banking loans but also include venture and angel capital, angel capital. But on a more serious note, there is no need bothering\u00a0 improving access to finance without improving the operating environment.<\/p>\n
Successful Business leaders need to replicate their success stories<\/strong><\/p>\nWe all need to begin investing in the youth. That\u2019s the purpose of the program I mentioned earlier. We believe this will help improve chances of survival because they are also in this category. Individuals who have the spirit of touching mankind and society should help. If we truly want to build our continent and create jobs, we should look to SME\u2019s. We must look at ways to jump-start that sector.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t see miracles happening overnight but the journey has begun and we can only build on what has started.<\/p>\n
Stay tuned for an in-depth article with Elumelu on his plans to help build and share wealth with the African American community in an upcoming issue of Black Enterprise magazine.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nThis article was originally published on\u00a0Black Enterprise<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u0627\u062e\u062a\u062a\u0645\u062a \u0642\u0645\u0629 \u0627\u0644\u0648\u0644\u0627\u064a\u0627\u062a \u0627\u0644\u0645\u062a\u062d\u062f\u0629 \u0648\u0623\u0641\u0631\u064a\u0642\u064a\u0627 \u0631\u0633\u0645\u064a\u064b\u0627 \u0641\u064a \u0648\u0627\u0634\u0646\u0637\u0646 \u0627\u0644\u0639\u0627\u0635\u0645\u0629 \u0641\u064a \u0627\u0644\u0623\u0633\u0628\u0648\u0639 \u0627\u0644\u0630\u064a \u0628\u062f\u0623 \u0641\u064a 6 \u0623\u063a\u0633\u0637\u0633. \u0648\u064a\u064f\u0639\u062a\u0628\u0631 \u0647\u0630\u0627 \u0627\u0644\u062a\u062c\u0645\u0639 \u0627\u0644\u0630\u064a \u0636\u0645 \u0645\u0627 \u0644\u0627 \u064a\u0642\u0644 \u0639\u0646 50 \u0631\u0626\u064a\u0633 \u062f\u0648\u0644\u0629 \u0623\u0641\u0631\u064a\u0642\u064a\u0629 \u0648\u0645\u0626\u0627\u062a \u0645\u0646 \u0642\u0627\u062f\u0629 \u0627\u0644\u0623\u0639\u0645\u0627\u0644 \u0645\u0646 \u0627\u0644\u0642\u0627\u0631\u0629 \u062e\u0637\u0648\u0629 \u0623\u0648\u0644\u0649 \u0643\u0628\u064a\u0631\u0629 \u0646\u062d\u0648 \u0645\u0633\u062a\u0642\u0628\u0644 \u0645\u062d\u062a\u0645\u0644 \u0644\u0631\u0627\u0628\u0637\u0629 \u0627\u0642\u062a\u0635\u0627\u062f\u064a\u0629 \u0645\u062a\u0646\u0627\u0645\u064a\u0629. \u0648\u062e\u0644\u0627\u0644 \u0647\u0630\u0647 \u0627\u0644\u0642\u0645\u0629 \u0627\u0644\u062a\u064a \u0627\u0633\u062a\u0645\u0631\u062a \u062b\u0644\u0627\u062b\u0629 \u0623\u064a\u0627\u0645\u060c \u062d\u0635\u0644 \u0627\u0644\u0623\u0645\u0631\u064a\u0643\u064a\u0648\u0646 \u0627\u0644\u0623\u0641\u0627\u0631\u0642\u0629 \u0627\u0644\u0630\u064a\u0646 \u062d\u0636\u0631\u0648\u0627 ...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":1360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/ar\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonyelumelufoundation.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1359"}],"curies":[{"name":"\u062f\u0628\u0644\u064a\u0648 \u0628\u064a","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"US_Africa_Leaders_Summit2014_T_Elumelu_Margarita_Corporan\"](\"https:\/\/tonyelumelufoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/US_Africa_Leaders_Summit2014_T_Olumelu_Margarita_Corporan061.jpg\")
As chairman of\u00a0Heirs Holdings<\/a>\u00a0and founder of the\u00a0Tony Elumelu Foundation<\/a>,<\/a>\u00a0Elumelu who coined the term\u00a0Africapitalism<\/a>, is one of the continent\u2019s richest and most powerful businessmen. He is of the firm opinion that the summit was a defining moment in U.S.-African relations and a chance for Sub-Saharan Africa to showcase its worth on the world stage.<\/p>\n