Open MIC Africa
Open Mic Africa @ MIT (OMA@MIT) is a conversational series about Africa’s rising innovation sector featuring tech entrepreneurs from the continent. This interactive, five-part program runs from February to May and will draw on guest CEOs, founders, and industry leads to delve into core facets of Africa’s innovation landscape. Topics will include financial inclusion, supply chain logistics, startup VC funding, and African e-commerce on and off the continent.
Click here for more info!
Click here for more info!
Energy & Natural Resources | Sponsored by Genser Energy Ghana
Theme: Backbone for Empowering Sustainable Business Growth and Achieving Climate Action Goals
A large number of Africans are living outside the electricity grid, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa with close to two-thirds of the region’s population without access to electricity. Thus, improving access to reliable and affordable energy is key to elevating the majority of Africa’s population out of poverty and improving their quality of life. This panel intends to cover the various products and business models that are increasing power access across the continent.
Click here for more info!
A large number of Africans are living outside the electricity grid, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa with close to two-thirds of the region’s population without access to electricity. Thus, improving access to reliable and affordable energy is key to elevating the majority of Africa’s population out of poverty and improving their quality of life. This panel intends to cover the various products and business models that are increasing power access across the continent.
Click here for more info!
Fintech
Theme: Financial Innovations for Inclusive Growth
Populations on the continent that previously had no access to financial services now access a wide range of financial and payments services through their mobile phones. However, despite the demonstrated potential for increased financial inclusion for the continent’s poor, these services have yet to gain traction across Africa. This panel will probe how digitizing services like micro-finance, insurance, and many others are great opportunities to provide wider access to financial services.
Click here for more info!
Populations on the continent that previously had no access to financial services now access a wide range of financial and payments services through their mobile phones. However, despite the demonstrated potential for increased financial inclusion for the continent’s poor, these services have yet to gain traction across Africa. This panel will probe how digitizing services like micro-finance, insurance, and many others are great opportunities to provide wider access to financial services.
Click here for more info!
Entrepreneurship | Sponsored by The Legatum Center @ MIT
Theme: Beyond the Startup, Building an Ecosystem for Scale
The role of startup ecosystems and hubs is critical in enabling the scaling of impactful endeavors. There is immense value, for aspiring entrepreneurs to be around like-minded innovators and technology. By empowering more entrepreneurs, governments and investors alike can enable the creation of more capital-generating entities that accrue wealth to more individuals, mitigating the effects of economic inequality. This panel will discuss the ingredients required to create thriving ecosystems that nurture startups and help them scale across the continent.
Click here for more info!
The role of startup ecosystems and hubs is critical in enabling the scaling of impactful endeavors. There is immense value, for aspiring entrepreneurs to be around like-minded innovators and technology. By empowering more entrepreneurs, governments and investors alike can enable the creation of more capital-generating entities that accrue wealth to more individuals, mitigating the effects of economic inequality. This panel will discuss the ingredients required to create thriving ecosystems that nurture startups and help them scale across the continent.
Click here for more info!
Human Capital
Theme: Building a World-Class Talent Pipeline
Africa is going through profound shifts - demographic, economical, technological, political and environmental. These severely affect its most important resource: Africa’s 1 billion people. Africa’s economic growth (on average 6%) has not been inclusive and its people have not reaped the benefits. With the continent’s population set to more than double by 2050, its greatest asset will be Africa’s capacity to harness its human capital. This panel will discuss the opportunities and the challenges in maximizing human capital across Africa.
Click here for more info!
Africa is going through profound shifts - demographic, economical, technological, political and environmental. These severely affect its most important resource: Africa’s 1 billion people. Africa’s economic growth (on average 6%) has not been inclusive and its people have not reaped the benefits. With the continent’s population set to more than double by 2050, its greatest asset will be Africa’s capacity to harness its human capital. This panel will discuss the opportunities and the challenges in maximizing human capital across Africa.
Click here for more info!
Agriculture | Sponsored by OCP Group
Theme: Grow Locally, Enrich Regionally, Participate Globally
Farming is the primary source of food and income for Africans and provides up to 60 percent of all jobs on the continent. Food production in sub-Saharan Africa needs to increase by 60 percent over the next 15 years to feed a growing population. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to nearly half of the world’s uncultivated land that can be brought into production. Together with abundant resources, strategic investments in agriculture can unleash virtuous growth cycles. How can Africa, then, capitalize on these opportunities?
Click here for more info!
Farming is the primary source of food and income for Africans and provides up to 60 percent of all jobs on the continent. Food production in sub-Saharan Africa needs to increase by 60 percent over the next 15 years to feed a growing population. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to nearly half of the world’s uncultivated land that can be brought into production. Together with abundant resources, strategic investments in agriculture can unleash virtuous growth cycles. How can Africa, then, capitalize on these opportunities?
Click here for more info!
Manufacturing | Sponsored by Royal Air Maroc
Theme: Made in Africa for the World
A robust manufacturing sector is broadly understood as a fundamental path to economic growth and development. In terms of two indicators of industrial development—manufacturing value added (MVA) and manufacturing exports—Africa lags far behind the rest of the world, even among developing countries. Despite this worrying trend, manufacturing in Africa has grown 3.5 percent annually from 2005 to 2014—faster than it has in the rest of the world. This panel will discuss the successes and barriers for manufacturing growth on the continent and the role of government, foreign investment, and technology (industry 4.0, AI, Robotics) in enabling it.
Click here for more info!
A robust manufacturing sector is broadly understood as a fundamental path to economic growth and development. In terms of two indicators of industrial development—manufacturing value added (MVA) and manufacturing exports—Africa lags far behind the rest of the world, even among developing countries. Despite this worrying trend, manufacturing in Africa has grown 3.5 percent annually from 2005 to 2014—faster than it has in the rest of the world. This panel will discuss the successes and barriers for manufacturing growth on the continent and the role of government, foreign investment, and technology (industry 4.0, AI, Robotics) in enabling it.
Click here for more info!
Fireside Chat with Efosa Ojomo
Theme: The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty
Global poverty is one of the world’s most vexing problems. For decades, we’ve assumed smart, well-intentioned people will eventually be able to change the economic trajectory of poor countries. From education to healthcare, infrastructure to eradicating corruption, too many solutions rely on trial and error. Essentially, the plan is often to identify areas that need help, flood them with resources, and hope to see change over time. The Prosperity Paradox identifies the limits of common economic development models, which tend to be top-down efforts, and offers a new framework for economic growth based on entrepreneurship and market-creating innovation. Christensen, Ojomo, and Dillon use successful examples from America’s own economic development, including Ford, Eastman Kodak, and Singer Sewing Machines, and shows how similar models have worked in other regions such as Japan, South Korea, Nigeria, Rwanda, India, Argentina, and Mexico. The ideas in this book will help companies desperate for real, long-term growth see actual, sustainable progress where they’ve failed before. But The Prosperity Paradox is more than a business book; it is a call to action for anyone who wants a fresh take for making the world a better and more prosperous place.
Click here for more info!
Global poverty is one of the world’s most vexing problems. For decades, we’ve assumed smart, well-intentioned people will eventually be able to change the economic trajectory of poor countries. From education to healthcare, infrastructure to eradicating corruption, too many solutions rely on trial and error. Essentially, the plan is often to identify areas that need help, flood them with resources, and hope to see change over time. The Prosperity Paradox identifies the limits of common economic development models, which tend to be top-down efforts, and offers a new framework for economic growth based on entrepreneurship and market-creating innovation. Christensen, Ojomo, and Dillon use successful examples from America’s own economic development, including Ford, Eastman Kodak, and Singer Sewing Machines, and shows how similar models have worked in other regions such as Japan, South Korea, Nigeria, Rwanda, India, Argentina, and Mexico. The ideas in this book will help companies desperate for real, long-term growth see actual, sustainable progress where they’ve failed before. But The Prosperity Paradox is more than a business book; it is a call to action for anyone who wants a fresh take for making the world a better and more prosperous place.
Click here for more info!