Africa Soft Power Summit kicks off in Kigali
Africa’s creative and tech industries, as well as women’s leadership are gathering in Kigali, under Africa Soft Summit 2024 that is taking place in Rwanda for its third time, from May 28th-31st.
The gathering draws speakers and participants from across Africa and the wider global diaspora with a focus on the future of women’s leadership, creative industries, technology, infrastructure, tourism, sustainability, finance, and more.
Themed “Africa Now: Connecting Africa – shaping the global social and economic priorities of our time”, the 2024 Africa Soft Power Summit brings together private and public sector leaders alongside innovators and emerging young leaders to address the trends shaping the continent’s business landscape and provide valuable network and business opportunities.
The Summit plays a pivotal role in Africa Soft Power’s mission to ensure that the continent defines its role and leadership in these wider global decision-making conversations and policies.
According to NKIRU Balonwu, Founder of Africa Soft Power, when you look at Western press, you realize that there is no place of balance in storytelling, it is like things go bad everywhere in Africa.
“So as Africans we owe responsibility to ourselves to actually tell our own story differently and better. Yes, there are challenges but also opportunities”, she noted.
Concerning talents in football among Africans, NKIRU said, “We are strong, we know how to play football, we know what sports has done to America, we see what the Premiere League is doing, what football is doing in Europe, and where is Africa League? Football is such an emancipator. There are a lot of things we could do, we have more talents, we need governments and private sector to support in infrastructure development to include young people in investment. Sports does not need much money for young people, people to believe in them.”
She said that the core thing in this summit is building connections to bring Africa top Leadership in global conversations whether is about critical issues of our time for example climate change, gender equality, among other things.
“This platform Africa Soft Power is really seeking to help amplify the soft power Africa has, I think everybody is aware in a certain way about Africa soft power, so, I use the example from Sports, every time you watch World Cup or NFL in the US or Premiere League Soccer. We have to start supporting our participation in the global sports ecosystem to give us an opportunity to celebrate African excellence in Sports,” Nana Baffour, Chairman, CEO and Chief Cultural Officer of Qintess, said.
Africa has the youngest population in the world, with 70% of sub-Saharan Africa under the age of 30. Such a high number of young people is an opportunity for the continent’s growth – but only if these new generations are fully empowered to realise their best potential. It is especially important that young people are included in decision making and given appropriate opportunities for work and to innovate.
“When we talk about soft power, it is about creatives, intellectual property, knowledge, that level of emotional understanding and intelligence that informs business strategy and national development. It’s about issues of intuition and when it comes to that women are stronger. We acknowledge that women and youth are the majority of the population. Women have the very significant role in promoting intra-Africa trade, they are the majority players in SMEs sector. What we can do is to ensure that we create a situation which facilitate and enhance participation of women and youth in the arrangements that would fuel trade among African countries,” Gayheart Mensah, Board Member, Africa Prosperity Network (APN).
