14/06/2024

Africa's Path to Prosperity | Panel

It’s time to stop seeing Africans as poor and powerless but as the future producers of wealth, prosperity, and abundance whose potential needs to be realised.

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Whoever finds the solution to poverty will win all the Nobel prizes combined.

Most of us would include "ending world poverty" in our three wishes if a genie were to appear and offer them.

Yet surprisingly, the answer to poverty is not as complex as we imagine it to be.

For decades we have focused all our energies on “poverty alleviation, this idea that I should just be happy being a little bit less poor”, says Senegalese entrepreneur Magatte Wade. But no, “the solution to poverty is prosperity”. If we stop and think about it, each person's extraordinary dignity should call for nothing less.

In this conversation, Magatte's message is clear: we need to change our mindset. She calls those in Africa to move forward from focusing on the continent's very real past suffering, and to start building the prosperity of the future. And for the rest of the world, it is time to stop seeing Africans as poor and powerless. The people of Africa are not consumers to be made “a little less poor”, they are the future producers of wealth, prosperity, and abundance whose potential needs to be realised.

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Magatte Wade is an entrepreneur and advocate for African dignity and prosperity. She serves as the Director for The Centre for African Prosperity of Atlas Network. Throughout her career, she has created retail brands inspired by diverse African traditions, most recently SkinIsSkin.com. Her first book, The Heart of a Cheetah, was published in 2023.

Konstantin Kisin is a political commentator and TRIGGERnometry host.

Francis Foster is a writer, speaker, and TRIGGERnometry host.

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