 Good morning. My name is Lise Grande and I am the head of the United States Institute of Peace which was established by Congress in 1984 as a public institution dedicated to preventing, mitigating and resolving violent conflict abroad. We're delighted to welcome everyone this morning to a very special conversation on the role of the private sector in promoting peace and development across the African continent. We'd like to thank our co-hosts from the Heritage Foundation for their partnership of today's event. The Foundation has been a leader for many decades in promoting private sector engagement as a key pillar of US foreign policy. For those of you who are joining us in line or in person, please join the conversation on social media using the hashtag African entrepreneurship. The private sector makes innumerable contributions to securing peace by providing jobs and economic opportunities, promoting education, advancing institutions, protecting the rule of law and helping to address the social pressures that lead to extremism and democratic backsliding. We are honored to be joined today by one of the leading voices in Africa across the world on the nexus of economic opportunity and conflict prevention, Mr. Tony Alameu. Mr. Alameu is one of Africa's top investors and philanthropists. The Tony Alameu Foundation was founded in 2010 and is giving 200 million dollars to entrepreneurs across Africa. To date, the Foundation has trained more than 16,000 entrepreneurs across all 54 African countries. We are also delighted to be joined this morning by Ms. Dana Banks, the special assistant to the president of the United States and the senior director for Africa at the National Security Council. I would now like to welcome Mr. Alameu to the stage for your opening remarks before our moderated discussion. Thank you very much. Thank you, President. Thank you, Director Banks. Thank you, Josh. Thank you, everyone, for making this possible. I have been emphatic in my position that economic transformation of Africa lies in the hands of our young ones, our young entrepreneurs, who have great ideas and energy and audacity on what and how they can contribute to the transformation of the continent. Unfortunately, in terms of job creation and opportunities for our youth, Africa suffers or lacks this money behind. Youth unemployment is a waste of talent and a betrayal of a generation. It feeds extremism and insecurity. It has therefore become critical to lead conversations and for partnerships across the world that should help to address this fundamental issue. U.S. relationship with Africa in my view, should be reimagined away from aid to focus on empowerment of our youth and support for sustainable institutions that should allow the timid reuse of Africa to be productive and to thrive. Entrepreneurship, peace, conflict, they are linked one way or the other. When people are optimally engaged, they will like to see peace and they will not be interested in creating problems for my kind. But when people feel they are excluded, when people feel or don't have opportunity for where or see economic opportunity or hope, they would take to extremism to create problems for everyone of us. Poverty anywhere to me is a threat to mankind everywhere. Extremism is a product of poverty, joblessness, lack of education, poor access to healthcare delivery. All of these create a vicious cycle of poverty. The fight against extremism and conflict must start from prioritizing our young ones, must start from creating jobs. We need to remove the incentive of being extremists in the 21st century Africa by engaging and providing jobs for our young ones. On my own, in 2010, my family founded the Tony Elmelo Foundation. Our purpose was simple, wanted to democratize luck, wanted to create economic opportunities for people, wanted to play our own role in economically empowering our young ones and making them become better future Tony Elmelo's. We decided to do this by endowing 100 million U.S. dollars to the Tony Elmelo Foundation to help identify and seed $5,000 each to this young African entrepreneurs. Male, female, from across 50 African countries. Sector agnostic. We felt that it was not how much we owned that mattered. We felt it was what was important was the kind of impact we can create. The legacy we leave behind by making sure that whatever we have we spread it in a manner that truly creates sustainability, truly helped to prioritize people and helped to increase and encourage our collective commitment to succeed as a people. So far, we have supported over 16,000 young Africans. We set out to support 10,000, 1,000 every year but through collaboration with like-minded partners who have been able to increase and achieve over 16,000 in seven years since the funding we set up the entrepreneurship program. We trained beneficiaries for 12 weeks and at the end of the program we appointed mentors for them and seed $5,000. Small money but a vital amount of capital to these young entrepreneurs it helped them to prove their concept. We know that they need more than $5,000 to grow to create an Apple organization or the Apple type of organization but they need to prove support to prove their concept. We're scaling up but we see collaboration to do a lot more. When I see on the faces, when I see these young entrepreneurs, African, we're supporting. I like the excitement I see in them. I like the happiness. I like the sense of fulfillment. And I want us to replicate and touch more lives. Every year we have hundreds of thousands of young Africans apply but fortunately we're not able to support all. And so what is supposed to help democratize luck and create the happiness is almost beginning to affect people in a manner that we did not anticipate. We need our friends, especially in the U.S. We need you more now than ever before. Last month in Dubai, I received the Time 100 Impact Award as I received it in my acceptance speech. I stress the need for leaders across the world to pull resources together to prioritize humanity by promoting entrepreneurship, gender equity, sustainability, and digital innovation. I stress that the world we live in today has never been in such a need for all of us, especially the private sector and the world, to come together to do something. I believe, ladies and gentlemen, that the time to act is now and to do so urgently. We need to work together to avert a global catastrophe. I want that we can almost see and feel. We need to bring resources together. We need to bring minds together and that again, president, I want to thank you and Josh, I want to thank all of you for making this platform available for us to continue the dialogue and engagement on how collaboratively we can pull resources, work together to help the world. I appreciate your time, I appreciate the generosity that you've shown and I appreciate the hospitality of this great institute and heritage foundation. I look forward to us continuing this conversation in the Thank you very much. We're watching this online and to all of you who've joined us in person at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Let me take a moment first to introduce our second panelist, the special assistant to the president and senior director for Africa at the National Security Council, Ms. Dana Banks. Dana Banks is a colleague and a friend. She is a 22-year veteran of the Foreign Service and she knows very well the topic we're going to be talking about today, the interconnectedness between development and peace and she spent some quality time on the continent having served in Nigeria, Tanzania, and Togo. So thank you Dana for joining us and welcome to both of you. Let me first start with our distinguished guests, Mr. Tony Emilello. We are really delighted to have you with us today, truly delighted because you understand the link between entrepreneurship, development, and peace building. And peace building is our focus here at the U.S. Institute of Peace and so we're really delighted to be able to weave all of these together to talk about the things that bring about peace long-term and sustainably. I couldn't see that we could have two better panelists than we didn't have Dana Banks and Chairman Emilello, so thank you for both agreeing to be on this panel. The first thing I want to talk about is your very visionary and courageous economic philosophy of African capitalism. It reflects your belief that African businesses, the private sector has to play a role in development on the continent, particularly youth job creation. You've also talked about the importance of creating economic and social wealth, but yet we all know how very challenging it is to do that. In your own country of Nigeria, you recently criticized the loss of 95 percent of oil production due to theft. At a time when the global price of oil is increasing and one would expect to see an oil producing country like Nigeria really generating a lot of revenue for its people, but apparently that's not really the case. So the question I'd like to start with for you, sir, is how can the private sector play a greater role in engaging government on the issue of good governance, which is so important for the enabling environment that brings foreign direct investment and that builds that economic and social wealth we talk about. So how does the private sector engage with the government on that very important topic of good governance? First is we need to understand, and more so our government, need to understand the role of private sector in economic development. Oftentimes I see a disconnect. At times, and I speak not just for our country, but I speak for most of the government across Africa, at times you see government erroneously seeing the private sector as competitors. No. We should see the private sector, the public sector, the development partners as all hands working together to advance humanity. All hands working together to drive economic prosperity, economic growth, social wealth, social justice in the system. And for me, for the private sector to do with that enabling environment must be established. And once it's established, the private sector must therefore take advantage of the opportunities created and plays its own role. I see the private sector helping to catalyze economic growth by creating jobs. Government per se, government does not have the capacity to create jobs that we need on the continent. The rate at which we are growing, the demographic of Africa, and the rate at which people enter the job market on the continent is far, far more than we can even imagine. And so we need a collaborative approach in making this approach. So I want to see a private sector that is strong on the continent because being strong and succeeding will help to drive economic growth. I want to see us prioritize the small and medium scale enterprise on the continent. So when we talk about private sector, not just about the big corporations, we need to cut across all layers and make sure that every segment is included. I believe in inclusivity in governments. We need to make sure we carry everyone along gender inclusivity, youth inclusivity, all facets of society. The lack of it is part of the reason we are a problem. And peace in the world and African particular, we can't even begin to address it if we don't address the issue of youth engagement. The private sector does have a role to play in this. And so does our government. Most of government creating the inevitable environment. But the private sector must also engage with government to let government know. Like you said, the tweet about what I felt was happening. It's not a criticism per se. It's actual what I saw, what I believe happened. And they need to address it so that we can attract more investment into the country. We need massive investment to help create jobs. When we don't have investment coming in due to some of these issues, theft, insecurity, et cetera, for that takes us back or away from achieving our objective of creating development, prosperity, youth engagement on the continent. So yes, we need a multi-purpose system. Let's put a few numbers to this conversation that you've just laid out for us. Just before the pandemic, the Price Waterhouse Clupers released some data that was tracking the economic gains enjoyed by African countries that improved their governance over several years. They estimated that if each African country made improvements in governance equivalent to that made by the strongest performer, which they considered Côte d'Ivoire at the time, the continent's overall gross domestic product would grow by about $23 billion. That's an enormous amount of money, and that's a very impressive figure. So with that kind of growth possible, what are the things that the United States and other partners can be doing to help African people and governments improve their governance to see that kind of a return? I think what the U.S. government, you need to see how the U.S. is perceived across the continent. U.S. is respected, is admired, is loved across the continent. In fact, if anything, people are beginning to wonder if U.S. is still there for Africa because of the encroachment or not the encroachment, but the foray into Africa by other world powers. We would like to see U.S. government engage first to reimagine what Africa needs and the 21st century Africa. It is good, but we need to make sure it gets to the last mile. We need to make sure that we prioritize those who should get it. The situation where you have budgets of billions of dollars coming to Africa, and yet we still have the level of youth unemployment. You tell us that something is not right. The healthcare system is fragile. So many things are not right. So I would like to see one, a change in policy that helps to prioritize the ultimate recipients of whatever we're given on the continent. Two, I'd like to see helping to develop infrastructure that helps to infrastructure that helps to drive sustainability. And I'd like to also see U.S. government help us through the president and the likes of banks to engage in a manner that policy makers, maybe a policy maker training supporting them to see what I said before by the link between the private sector success and the public sector and the publicity goals for the people. I believe some of those approaches will help together. But in summary, I'd like to see a rethink of how to engage with Africa, especially when it comes to aid. I want to see it get to the people who really need it. I'd like to see a strengthening of our infrastructure institutions. There are quite some institutions that are weak and they're not able to engender great good governance. We need to clean all of this up and then public dialogue with our leaders. Joshua, let me turn to you. Yeah, thank you. So Mr. Chairman, I wanted to focus in on something you've already referenced here, and that is the coming or ongoing youth explosion on the continent. Probably many people know the numbers, but 60% of the African population is under 25 years old. By 2035, it's estimated that there will be a larger working class in Africa than in China or India. These are staggering numbers. They're historic. There obviously could be immense benefits here for Africa. A demographic dividend is part of what drove China's rise, for instance, as an economic power. But there's also a danger. We've talked a little bit already about some governance challenges that exist on the continent, unemployment, underemployment, lack of seed capital, things of that nature, could lead to a massive youth population that is disaffected, that is disillusioned, and that's a recipe for potential unrest. So your foundation is tackling elements of this head-on. So you're working on the unemployment issues and related issues. So my question is, after a decade of doing this, after training 16,000 entrepreneurs, are you optimistic? Are you pessimistic? Or maybe somewhere in between about the future for African youths? First is that I'm extremely optimistic about the future, and I'm not just saying that I've been optimistic. When I travel these young Africans, I see a lot of excitement, and I also see foresand from the people who have supported, how they are succeeding, the differences and changes they are bringing to their communities and business environments already. And I know for a fact that if we can all prioritize them for that and give them the support they need, we'll do more. Forget we have over 600 million people on the continent under the age of 13. And we're talking here about 16,000 beneficiaries of the foundation. So it's like less than a tiny drop of water in the ocean. For us to make the kind of impact that will increase our optimism and about the future of the continent, we need to massively scale up this. And again, that is the message I bring to the table that let's poor resources come together to do it, realizing that if there's poverty in Nigeria, if there's poverty in Africa, it affects everyone everywhere. There are young Africans who want to get to Europe even crossing the Mediterranean in a very, very harsh condition, and they don't care. They prefer to tell you we'd rather die trying to get there than stay here. So we need to all work together to see how to make this change our call. Yes, I'm optimistic. The people who have supported, I see successes, but we need a martial plan. We need something much bigger than these 16,000 to make a difference. We should be talking of millions on a yearly basis across the continent. And who are those to make this happen? The African private sectors who are succeeding, the global development institutions, and friends of Africa across the world, and those who realize who see the linkage between what happened, what happened in the part of the world affects everyone of us everywhere. So I see a future, but that future should be driven by fundamentals. And for me, a key fundamental that is prioritizing the young ones, entrepreneurship, and not just entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is not the only way to do it, but it's one of the callways for us. It's tested. We've done it. We've seen it. We've seen our own life story, where we were before and where we are today. It's solved because of the private sector, the entrepreneurship and success, which is why we created the Tony and Melu Foundation to help democratize luck, to help create access and economic opportunities for others the way we go. Because that is the difference. That's why I'm not on the street today. So we want to make sure that we take more people out of the streets through this kind of initiative. And the good thing is that they're intelligent. If you see some of the unicorns, some of the young companies coming out of Africa being valued properly and people investing in them, it tells you what the future can be if we give more support to these people. And there are millions of them on the continent. What is it about entrepreneurialism that is so well-suited for young people specifically? That's obviously your focus. And you mentioned entrepreneurialism as a core solution to these problems. Why are young people so well-suited to do entrepreneurialism? So for me, Africa is a continent of entrepreneurs. Everybody wants to be an entrepreneur on the continent. And I encourage it. My own story validates that. So today's Tony and Melu started from nowhere, so to speak. And I just would imagine if 100,000 or a million across Africa will have this kind of opportunity in 10 years time to be a different continent. And that is why to me, entrepreneurship is key. Today, I am opportunity, I'm lucky to be the chairman of United Bank for Africa Group, UBA Group. UBA operates in 20 African countries. UBA operates in Paris, in London, UK. And it's the only African bank in the United States of America, all of America that has a deposit-taking license operating in New York. I didn't start like that. I was not a billionaire son, but we created this out of sheer entrepreneurialism. Today, we have a part of our group that is into power generation. Access to electricity was important. Obama launched the Power Africa Initiative. Our group committed $2 billion to the program that we're going to, committed, we're going to invest $2 billion to improve access to electricity on the continent. Today, we have generating capacity of 2,000 megawatt of electricity in addition to supply Republican power. I did not start like that. It's just again about entrepreneurship and determination to succeed. I see in Africa today more people, more determined than I was at their age. So, if all the difference between those guys and Tunei Lumelo today is access to opportunities, you know, and that is what I want to create. And that is what I'm mobilizing others in the private sector in particular, let's team up and do something that will be impactful. Let's think legacy. Let's think less about what we'll have in our bank accounts. But as we do so, we need our government to also help to prioritize the kind of philosophy policy that will help us to succeed. And friends of Africa, like the United States of America, what about the poor resources and see how we can create more to new values out of the continent? They are ready. They are ready. The reason something to extremism today is because they don't see hope. So, we need to show examples so that they also get encouraged to know that there could be a better future for them. And yes, I believe strongly that entrepreneurship is one of the ways we can develop Africa in a manner that is truly sustainable. Talking about, A, the question that was asked before, we get support, a lot of support into Africa. And that's the truth. But my own is that we should reimagine how we make that support. How we give that support. Because we need to give from the point of view of creating self-reliance, you know, self-independence and making people less dependent on the known aid. But if we give and forever people cannot finish their budget with that aid, people can't do things with that aid, then we should question that mechanism, that approach, that something is not working. Because it should be an intervention for a period and then you are able to cater for yourself. But it's where it becomes perpetual. It calls for everything. And I believe that entrepreneurship does not lead to that. Entrepreneurship and laziness don't go together. Entrepreneurship at that level or dependent don't go together. You can't keep giving support to someone every time. You provide assistance, you start running. And then you should also be able to expand that, replicate that so that collectively we're all working in a manner to improve the society. Mr. Chairman, I couldn't agree more that Africa is a continent of entrepreneurs. In my travels across Africa, every large city, you see that hustle, that drive, that marketing, that selling in the streets, that cities that never really sleep. That is really the Africa that we know is there. And it's pretty much based in the informal economy. And what is beautiful about your program is how you're transforming it into the formal economy. So with that, I'd like to turn to Ms. Dana Banks to ask about the administration, the Biden administration's plans to kind of really capitalize and tap into that energy, that vibrancy of entrepreneurial spirit across the continent. I know the administration has talked about a private-led growth strategy and it's focusing on youth employment in particular. Tell us a little bit about some of the plans of the Biden administration for really driving that kind of entrepreneurial spirit that Chairman Amalillo has been talking about. What are some of the key programs and initiatives that the administration is pursuing to really drive that? Thank you, Michela. Really pleased to be here today and honored to be on the stage with you, Chairman Elumelu. We are so excited to have partnered with you and your foundation with Power Africa as well as Prosper Africa. And I think that is sort of the genesis of where we are today in the conversations that we're having currently in the administration when we talk about supporting entrepreneurship and youth entrepreneurs on the continent and how that feeds into broader economic growth. It's that creativity, it's the innovation that entrepreneurs bring on the continent that really will help to further the societies that they're in. And as the title of this session leads to when we talk about peace and security, it's something that you cannot sort of sequence peace and security with greater economic growth and investment. It's a mutually symbiotic relationship and so we have to have both at the same time. So we're really looking at how we can partner and how we can support entrepreneurs on the continent. One of the things that we're looking at now is how we support African startups and entrepreneurs. In 2016, I think African startups generated about $350 million in capital. In 2021, I think that was already up to $4 billion and on schedule on track in 2022 to generate $7 billion in capital for African startups. And it's this type of, you know, these numbers, this power that we want to help support and that we need to support. So through our Prosper Africa initiative that was relaunched last July by President Biden, we have many tools in our toolbox to do that. And one of the tools that we just launched recently is something that will support African startups and provide additional credit to them and actual, you know, sort of shaping to help them shape their businesses. And it's a partnership with the Development Finance Corporation working with Prosper Africa to provide and the African Development Foundation, ADF, USADF, to provide some credit and facilities to these African startups and to provide them capital to really harness the power of their innovation, of their ingenuity, and to take the next Tony Elemelos from the continent and who are even more energetic and enterprising and to get them to where they need to be with their businesses to help them grow their businesses but also to help them grow their communities. We see that constantly and consistently across the continent is that young entrepreneurs, they're not just in it for themselves, they're in it to grow their communities. And that's what we want to do. We want to support community led solutions, leaders in the community as they seek to strengthen their communities so we can fight off some of the instability that we're seeing, unfortunately, across the continent. You know, give youth alternatives if they don't have jobs, if they don't have opportunities or access to capital, then you know, terrorist networks and others, these are right infertile grounds where they come in to play. So we want to provide them and keep them on the positive path to really supporting economically and strengthening their communities. We also want to focus on women, you know, women hold the path to the sky. We know this, we've heard this and you've seen that hustle and bustle in the market. It is the women in that marketplace. It is the women in the communities who also really build strong communities across the continent. So we're looking at how we support women in particular but youth in general in building these stronger economies across the continent which can then lead to greater peace and stability and prosperity across the continent. I know that Josh was going to want to ask a few questions about Prosper Africa and the Development Finance Corporation. So I'll shift to another topic that is equally important for growing economies, the digital economy, the digital prospects that are out there. The administration has also talked a bit about how using technology and access to the digital economy really can grow economies so much faster. And in Africa we see the internet use growing faster than any place else on the continent. We see young people really embracing the internet and the job potential, the job creation opportunities there are vast. Can you tell us a little bit about how the administration's thinking about digital initiatives in Africa which we know have the potential to really be exponentially drivers of growth? Absolutely. So we are looking currently in the administration at an initiative for Africa on supporting and growing greater digital access across the continent. But it's not only about that access, it's also about building the skills and the capacity of this large youth population on the continent because what do young entrepreneurs use to grow their businesses? In many places even in the most remote the cell phone is key, access to business, to capital, to banking, to growing their business, to communicating, to their networks. So we want to build the skills, reinforce the structure, the infrastructure that African countries need to further support this business community. So we're hopefully will be able to launch something publicly soon but we're really looking at this from a comprehensive innovative and creative type of standpoint when we look at digital access across the continent. And when we talk about partnering with the private sector, Google just announced recently their large and major investment on the continent over five years and so we're looking at how we can partner with other companies in the private sector to really help grow that because that is what's needed in today's marketplace and in the future to really expand and burden other economies, other young entrepreneurs across the continent. Please, please. Because she just said, she just mentioned Google. I like to say that when I talk about partners working together to help galvanize and support young Africans, especially those in entrepreneurship, I think Google is a good example of that. We just also signed a partnership with Google and a partnership with Google. First, in 2021, they supported I think about a thousand entrepreneurs through the, you know, they spent $3 million, about 600 entrepreneurs through the 2008 Melu Foundation. But more importantly, they sent the team to the foundation just the last month to help. We have what we call the TEF Connect. It's a digital platform that the Melu Foundation uses to reach young African entrepreneurs who have today over a million subscribers to it. And these are young African entrepreneurs networking digital platform that are headed to travel one another across the continent, know what they are doing, support each other. And it goes a world of their own. And Google has come and then we use that platform to train. Because what we do, like this last year, we got over 350,000 applications from these young Africans who are interested, but of course we take only a thousand or two. Now, but we say, okay, even before we have limited resources, let's train all. So everyone that comes on that program would train them. And Google has now is helping not to expand the capacity of that platform. So we'll be able to train more seamlessly across. So I think that is a clear example of the kind of partnership that we need. And that digital partnership is so critical, support for Africa is so, so critical because we have internet connectivity is not so great, bandwidth available is not so great. Yet this young African must connect with the rest of the world. And that is also one area we need to, we need to focus on. And I like to see other global player, tech players support this kind of initiative. We certainly want to congratulate you on that. I think it's probably the first of that kind of partnership for Google on the continent. So really kudos to you and your team for pulling that one off. It's a great addition to the team. And I think I dedicated that to young African entrepreneurs because Google and like they've seen what the potential that these young Africans have, all they need is your support. And President Macron, I think they'll launch the tech for good, where I say technology for good, technology for all. So I think that space is very important for engagement of our young boys. Absolutely. Joshua, you might want to drill a little bit deeper, drill a little bit deeper. I meant to say drill a little bit deeper, not drill, drill a little bit deeper on this issue of Prosper Africa. Yeah, well, we are coming up to summer, so it's grilling season. But yeah, so Prosper Africa recently, the Biden administration both maintained it, but also expanded it. And you just laid out in really interesting detail some of the the focuses that the administration is going to have within Prosper. Is this, can we expect other innovations? Can you, is this sort of a fully baked concept? Or is this something that you're still working on? Should we expect further tweaks or maybe a full scale remodel? Or what do you sort of, if you can cast your eye into the future, what do you foresee for Prosper? Sure, thanks, Josh. So Prosper Africa, it's, as you mentioned, this initiative started in the previous administration and we relaunched, we retooled it last summer. And we really, we brought in some of the elements I mentioned in terms of the focus on gender equality and small and medium enterprises, young entrepreneurs, the youth focusing on the youth and really trying to harness all of the support and the capabilities that the 17 U.S. government departments and agencies bring to the initiative. So the one I mentioned earlier was, you know, it's one of the tools in the toolkit with development finance corporation and U.S. African Development Foundation. But there are, you know, 17 U.S. government departments and agencies, each with its own specific and unique expertise to help match up, you know, American investors who want to invest on the continent with companies on the continent and young entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in general and companies who are looking for that type of partnership, that type of investment, but perhaps don't know how or where to start. We also recognize that the continent through the African Union and through the African Continental Free Trade Area has set out its vision on how they would like to promote trade investment from abroad. And so we want to work very closely with the AFCFTA and the Secretariat there to help let our investors know, American companies know, what the different regulatory environments are on the continent and how they can best meet those and then bringing in, you know, the government, the power of, you know, our U.S. government development, department, departments and agencies to support that. And then the most critical piece with the private sector, bringing in the private sector on board. Because, you know, government can only do so much. I think you mentioned that. It can only go so far. But it's key for having, for creating the enabling environment for companies to come and want to invest. But the companies also need to know where to go, what to do and how to navigate. So this, we feel like Prosper Africa, there's always room for growth, there's always room to prosper, right? And to retool and to refit, to really adjust. Because, you know, when you take on an initiative of this size that at its heart, that the goal is really to increase, you know, two-way trade and investment and to support it and to support our American investors and their endeavors on the continent. While we're also trying to increase trade investment, because Africa is definitely the new frontier. And we need to make sure that we are partnering with companies, with entrepreneurs, with businesses on the continent in a very real and sustainable way. And this in Prosper Africa is the tool that we are using with all of the tools that we have across the U.S. government to really support and U.S. Africa trade and investment. So yeah, there's always room to grow, so stay tuned. Sure. Great. Well, I, you know, kudos to the administration for really leaning into Prosper. I think it's very exciting and I'm personally looking forward to future innovations. Maybe we have time to squeeze in one more question. Or do we want to try to get to audience questions? Can I ask the question of the chairman that I think I really can't avoid, because we're a piece building into it. Mr. Chairman, we've all been watching, of course, with great concern the surge in coups across Africa, at least six coups and attempted coups since 2021. And we know that there are many reasons that contribute to why a coup happens in a country. But I'd like to get your thoughts maybe on to what extent do you think the lack of economic opportunity is setting the stage for this kind of a democratic backsliding that we see going on. It's very concerning to many of us and we're all thinking of what are the smart interventions. How do you see it from a business person's perspective? What do you see as the economic cause of some of this? I think I like even the name Prosper Africa, because what Africa needs prosperity, you know, and that prosperity is all a piece of what will reduce conflict on the continent. And I will stop the co-debtors that we're beginning to see on the continent. You know, lack of economic opportunities, lack of economic hope, poverty, joblessness, gender inequality, these are issues that create political instability. We cannot have political stability if we don't address these fundamentals. So it is a problem and we hope and pray that it stops there, the country that have already experienced it. And I hope that it becomes a wake-up call to others to sit up, prioritize these young ones, address these social issues, address economic problems so that prosperity, at least a drastic reduction of poverty and pulling people out of the poverty line will help to bring stability. I preach always and that poverty anywhere is a threat to all of us everywhere. We can have stability if people are hungry. We can have stability if people are starving. We can have stability if there's no economic hope. People can endure and say okay, the way things are going three years time, five years time, things will be okay. But where there's hopelessness and adherence, and that's what we're seeing. So the solution, good governance, privatization of our people, the young ones in particular, engaging with the private sector to increase the ability to create jobs on the continent so that we can engage with people and making sure that we run an inclusive society that brings everyone to the table. That is the solution. You make a compelling case for the role of the private sector in addressing long-term instability and conflict on the continent. Would you even imagine that private sector can play a role in peace negotiations and peace processes? Private sector, we are not trained to be involved in peace negotiations. However, conflict negotiations, sorry. However, we can play a role to prevent it. For me, rather than deal with consequences, how about making sure it does not happen in the first instance? And the private sector can play a role there. Again, on the African continent, we have issues. I mean, we're discussing today about some of these pockets of the manifestation of bad governance and lack of economic hope and opportunities. Imagine what happened in 10 years time, given the rate of our population growth and especially the demography of our population. It's going to be worse. So, we need to do something urgently. I sit at home and I'll tell you more recently. My young ones, you see, they are playing on the internet, on the iPad, and they tell me all these sort of matches are going to come. And I'm like, what happens to those who don't have access to internet connectivity? What future are we creating? So, you see a future of these kids who are used to the internet. I said they know what's happening in the world, and you see other kids who don't even know what's happening, don't even know have access to it, who cannot even fit. And we're thinking of stability? No, it cannot happen. So, for me, the private sector has a role to play, and that is at the center of Africa capitalism. You know, the leadership role of private sector in 21st century Africa in catalyzing economic growth opportunities and development. But for that to happen, we need our government to create the enabling environment. And I look forward to the upcoming dialogue with African leaders. I pray and hope it's a true dialogue that brings the private sector and African leaders together, and also one that does not even, they should not come and make written speeches. They didn't have conversations like this, so that let's see, come on, people prepare speech for you. Stand up, you read this, which I move on. No, let's engage dialogue and let leaders know what the private sector needs for them to do well, and let them understand that the success of the private sector helps them to meet even their political manifestations and promises to their people, so that they work in harmony within what is generally acceptable, so that we can create an inclusive government. So, private sector should play a role in helping to have that and avoid conflict, rather than being involved in the resolution. But yes, if it gets to that, that there's conflict, the private sector should be involved in discussing terms that bring resolution to the table, and I'm sure what the private sector will be saying is, let's create jobs for our people. Let's improve access to electricity. Let's deal with internet connectivity and bandwidth issues. Let's make sure that we run an inclusive government. Let's make sure that society is inclusive. Let's make sure that females have a seat at the table, young ones have a seat at the table, and that everyone is involved, and that irrespective of your religion or your age, you can have a say in what's happening. That inclusiveness is what we need to move the world to the next level. Let's open the conversation a little bit to our audience here. If you'd like to raise your hand and just identify yourself. I think that one might work, so we can hear you well. If they can increase the volume of the audio. Hello. I'll start again. Hello. I'm Carl von Barton. I'm a post consultant here in DC. I was born in Lagos, Nigeria, so I know the country really well. Now, wouldn't you agree with me that no matter how much money, billions, zillions, we dump into Africa or Nigeria, nothing will change because why? You know, there's no infrastructure. I was discussing with the Nigerian government a few months ago about setting discussions. Can you maybe adjust it? Sorry, I'll do this here. Now, no matter how much money we dump in the continent, nothing will change because there is no infrastructure, no power, no light systems, no healthcare systems. And so when you don't have that environment, no matter how much money you dump in, nothing changes. Let's look at China. It seems the US seems to have an 18th century policy for Africa. What we did in China was quite different. We had American businesses go there and start businesses. We can make this in Africa, but right now we have no power. We have no resources, so we can't do that. So, wouldn't you agree with me that unless we have the infrastructure on the ground, that no matter what discussions we have, we'll send there, nothing will happen? That's my first question. You know, my second question here is, don't you think that it's time we have a true discussion with the American government in the sense where we have a true discussion with the American government, where we have, we push away from why call handbasket, weave in trade policies, which is let's go there and train you. Nothing happens. We need to be China or we tie around. We didn't do this. Let's have American businesses like Google, Apple, go to Nigeria, open factories, build stuff to sell to Americans. This is how it works around the world. We seem to have this 18th century policy of crafting weave baskets and training people that, like a good example, what you're doing is great. You're investing in people to start businesses, but we know for every thousand entrepreneurs only one succeed. That's just the mathematics there. And they're not everyone's going to succeed, but we can take people from Americans here who have done a great job, go there and start businesses. So my second question, don't you think we have to revamp the entire U.S. African trade policy? You want to respond right away? Yeah, because two questions also. So, you know, I think your interventions are right. Let me start with the second one. In my remarks, I said it's time we reimagined the relationship between the U.S. as friends of Africa and the continent. And I call it to a first century Africa. For me, shouldn't be Africa of a dependency issue, Africa of dignity and several lines. And to me, the way to get there amongst others, but to me, tested at what I know I can speak to is entrepreneurship. Let's prioritize young girls and support them because so much billions of dollars have gone into Africa by way of aid, yet the continent remains perpetually dependent. If you do something time and time and time and time, and it's not given the desired impact result, you reassess it. So it's time to reimagine how that engagement and engagement goes. And that banks, I hope, that cross for Africa and also the convention, the convening in President of Africa, that will begin to think of this. How do we change this? We've been doing something the same way, maybe it's time to have a new deal that addresses that. So I agree with you on that. But the first point, infrastructure is such a problem on the continent. In fact, much not long ago here, I talked about access to electricity, internet connectivity issue, bandwidth issues. We need to fix all of this so that entrepreneurship, so that even the private sector can do it. There's so much that can happen on the continent. However, however, we cannot give up. Because if we wait for 100% access to electricity or coal before we start the journey, it will be too late. So let's see all. So some of the entrepreneurs who support today go into solar energy, for instance. Just little for their business and maybe a small community is something. Some into waste management, different things happening, recycling, so much in little, little form. Let's continue that while we wait for the big thing to happen. I said a few minutes ago, so that we need a martial plan. We need a martial plan for Africa to lift Africa sustainably at a poverty. There's a lot to be done in the area of infrastructure as well as entrepreneurship. For entrepreneurs to do well, you need some of this infrastructure in place, especially access to electricity, which will lack in Africa. But at the same time, you need entrepreneurs because at some point, one of these movies I've enjoyed most and books I've read, The Men Who Built America. I like to see how these five men work very hard in their respective ways and sectors to make things happen. So what I see also to my private set of friends is, yes, we can say all of this, but on our own, we should also be able to make a difference. So let's not give up the hope. Let's be optimistic. That's why your question, I'm optimistic because I've seen it. In my own time, if I was hindered or defined or characterised by my background, maybe I wouldn't be where I am today. So let's keep encouraging people, but let's play our own role in making sure that the encouragement is not just word of mouth, but in reality, we're doing something that can bring about the change that we need in that. Let me just do a quick time check. Do we have time for a few more questions? Are we out of time? Are we good on time? No, I'm so pungent. Okay. Let's try and get at least, go ahead. Do you want to try and take another question? Sure. Maybe we'll be one of the online ones so that we can bring our online audience in. So we got a couple here, but I'll just go with one. If there's one thing the Biden administration is going to do that will really benefit African entrepreneurs, what would that be? That's a good question. Yes, one. I think it would be sort of a mix of the previous question in terms of infrastructure, providing the infrastructure to help create the environment where you can have greater investment. And I think retooling, relaunching Prosper Africa was just one way of increasing two-way trade with Africa. Everyone is very familiar with the African Growth and Opportunity Act, a GOA, which is set to expire in 2025. Everybody knows it. Everybody loves it. But when we talk about reimagining, and those are some of the conversations that we're having right now, we have to talk about not just trade benefits, but what we're reimagining how our trade investment would look with Africa post a GOA, post 2025. How can we grow this? How can we harness the power of the entrepreneurship? How can we harness the power of the private sector? How can we provide greater infrastructure so that we can not just mine for minerals on the continent and manufacture cell phones in another country, but that it can be done right there on the continent? And so I think the reimagining the conversations that we're doing now as we look at our Africa strategy, as we prepare for the African Leaders Summit, I think it's setting the foundation, setting the scene for leaders to come together to talk, for the private sector to come in to listen, and for a civil society to also be a part of the conversation to see how we can bring all of these forces together to reimagine our trade investment with the continent. Joshua, Joshua, at that moment. Yes, we are. Unfortunately, we could continue talking about this for hours. And hopefully, we will have future conversations. Chairman Alamelu, my organization, USIP, the Biden administration, we're clearly all big fans of what you do, what you're accomplishing. We want to be partners. And so we look forward to searching into those opportunities to partner with you. So thank you to you, Chairman. Thank you to Senior Director Banks, to Ambassador James. I just realized I'm the only one without a good title on this stage. Thank you as well to the rest of the USIP team and everybody who is involved. It takes a lot of hands to get something like this together. I especially want to go so smoothly and it's so interesting. Thank you for everybody for attending. Thank you for those who joined us online and very much looking forward to future conversations like this.