Co-founder of startup tech fund company, Black Star, has stated that upcoming African entrepreneurs have whatever it takes to create a ‘Wakanda-like’ Africa.
According to Kwame Anku, the movie 'Wakanda', a fictional African country which developed the world’s most advanced technology without colonial interruption, can be made a reality by young people who are passionate about transforming the continent.
He said the feat is achievable only if young Africans are strategic about their story-telling to investors adding that they do not have to wait centuries to create the world they live in.
“It is very important that we are telling a strategic point of the story-telling aspect. And getting it in the hands and in front of the eyes of the power brokers in the diaspora and the people who have the power to make massive transformations in a short amount of time.”
He further noted that, “I believe in hyper acceleration. The 400-Odyssey ends today. And it becomes the beginning of the next 400 years. You don’t have to wait four centuries to create the world we live in. You can create Wakanda in every country in Africa. In 10 years, if that’s what you are focused on and the means to do that is technology and innovation and the means to do that.”
Kwame Anku made the comments speaking as one of the panelists at the second edition of the Ghana Tech Summit at the YMCA.
The theme for this year’s event is “Sankofa- ‘Go back and get it’; Redefining the Future of Africa.”
Mr Anku, noting that the Tech Summit is an antidote to the Berlin Conference, was of the view that the current breed of young African men and women are the caliber of transformative thinking the continent needs.
To shake up the foundation of the stereotype that ‘nothing good comes from Africa’, Kwame Anku advised young innovators to follow the lead of mentors or professionals in similar fields.
“For me, the job of the African youth is to get ready and link up with those further ahead and let us mentor you and watch us and model us. So when you are under the age of 20 and you are not believing that the continent of Africa will look like Wakanda in 54 countries, in the next years, then your vision is not big enough.”
In an interview with GhanaWeb, Founder of the Ghana Tech Summit, Einstein Ntim, said his vision was to set Ghana on the global pedestal of technology and innovation ecosystem.
Einstein Ntim believes that his aim to transform Ghana into a technology hub by 2030 will solve problems like unemployment in the country.”
He further urged indigenous companies as well as government to keep up with tech and innovation trends for efficiency and productivity
“Right now if you look across Africa, there is a huge unemployment taking place and the only way we can truly scale rapidly enough is to leverage technology. Every company is supposed to be a tech enabled company, every government is supposed to become a tech-enabled government. So its to teach people how to leverage technology to accelerate what they are doing. So we thought if we bring that concept to Ghana and help Ghana transform, we can help things accelerate and provide employment for young people across the country.”
The Ghana Tech Summit is an initiative of the Global Start-up Ecosystems (GSE) which has attracted over 100 top-notch technology speakers and 3000 guests with the same line up of top tier companies.
Over 40 media representatives from Forbes, Inc Magazine, Fast Company, Black Enterprise, NY Times will also be in attendance.
