The new century is for Africa! Regardless of those skeptics who dubbed her ‘The Hopeless Continent’, Africa is now a rising star in the universe full of potential and hope.  Africa is the youngest continent endowed with untapped natural resources. 

However, the focus to transform Africa should be on the human capital than on any other single resource. Though she needs to tap into her natural resources, taping into her human resources should get prime attention. She should use her human potential as her competitive advantage to overcome the challenges she is facing, catch up with the rest of the world, and ultimately lead the way in the areas where she has comparative and competitive advantages.

Putting her human capital at the center requires making some changes in her approaches. As she has been lagging behind almost in every sector, far behind, if she continues the path she has been on using the same approaches and with the usual pace that led her to this point, there is no better future for its people and the coming generations. She must take this season of her seriously and as her last chance to redeem herself. This is time to chart a new path, turn a new page. Otherwise, she will remain behind forever.

Resting her only hope solely on any form of revolution- industrial or technology- must stop now. The continent took too much time and failed to capitalize on these on time. These revolutions that helped other continents alone cannot accelerate her speed of growth to catch up with the rest of the world, let alone to use them for her own competitive advantages. It is too late. What is more? Financial and in-kind assistance, technology transfers, and experience sharing from those who attained sustainable economic development alone cannot also allow her to experience true transformation in one generation.

The continent must make a paradigm shift from focusing on techniques, systems, and technologies alone to investing in her people, especially on her youth and the most crucial section of her society- women. Africa should also tap into the Diaspora community well beyond its contribution in the form of remittance.

In short, Africa needs to undergo lots of changes and use various approaches at multiple fronts before she attains sustainable development. On top of implementing multitudes of development efforts both at continental, regional, and local levels, Africa should put developing her human capital at the center. These other development efforts using her natural resources cannot be successful, both in the short and long term, without raising competent leaders in quantity and quality. We need competent leaders who lead these development efforts successfully, and in turn, enable Africa to experience a lasting and sustainable transformation in one generation.

Raising leaders at all levels should be the focal point of Africa’s transformation. That is why PRO Leadership came up with this Initiative to raise competent and world-class leaders, together with other stakeholders and strategic partners. It is impossible to achieve once in a generation world-class transformation without raising world-class leaders at all levels, who first lead themselves and the people around them successfully, and ultimately contribute their fair share in transforming their respective community and ultimately the continent.

To learn more about the Initiative, and see how you may become a strategic partner, click here…

If you may have any questions, reach out at [email protected]