 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'll just give arrivals a chance to settle themselves in Before we lock the doors and bolt them keeping you all inside My name is Adrian Monk. I'm head of public engagement here at the forum My pleasure to welcome all of you and our co-chairs to this World Economic Forum on Africa 2015 25th World Economic Forum on Africa We'll be hearing from each of our co-chairs in just a moment But just to introduce them glad to welcome Anthony Jenkins group chief executive officer of Barclays Pumsile Mlambo Nuka executive director of UN women Patrice Motsepi founder and executive chairman of African Rainbow Minerals Paul Pullman chief executive officer of Unilever and So Michael Rake chairman of BT Group So I'm going to ask each of our co-chairs just to share with us some thoughts about their expectations and hopes for this meeting Then we'll be able to take some questions And if you could keep your questions on the meeting and its themes if you have anything to take up with our Co-chairs individually on their own work that we plenty of time in the next two days So without further ado, I'm going to turn over to Anthony and ask him to share a few of his thoughts on This year's World Economic Forum on Africa Anthony Well, good morning, and thank you. It's always exciting to be in Africa I've been coming here for about a decade now in various different roles that I've had at Barclays and You're all familiar with the positive story in the optimism about Africa and I share that optimism Of course, there are many challenges around things like infrastructure education and so on But the real question that confronts Africa is a question that confronts Every part of the globe in a world where we're going to be experiencing Structurally lower global GDP growth and that we became used to in the 20 or 30 years before the financial crisis And the impact of that is that every part of the globe is going to have to compete Aggressively and vigorously if it's going to stake its place in the global economy There are no free rides anymore and Africa has benefited of course From the growth in activity particularly in Asia and the commodity-based economies But as I said, it's going to have to work hard going forward and there's two areas in particular There are of interest to me and I think are important areas of focus for this meeting The first is the promotion of financial inclusion by some metrics Over 80% of people in sub-Saharan Africa have no access to the Conventional financial systems and without access to the financial systems. It's very hard for people to build Economic stability and security. It's hard for them to start businesses and promote enterprise and growth And so financial inclusion which is a matter both for the financial industry for governments and the third sector is a critical topic The second topic in my mind is also the promotion of trade my customers and clients in the developed world are Extremely interested in doing business here in Africa and there are many African companies which are increasingly doing business across the continent and globally We need to continue to facilitate and promote that trade as a spur for economic growth So I think we need to go into this meeting With a sense that there is a lot that can be done But it won't just happen. We're all going to have to work together to create the conditions for Africa to Experience and create its full potential. Thank you and say, thank you Can I ask you to share your thoughts, please? Thank you very much It's good to be home for me My expectation and an interest in this year's world and economy coming forum Is to encourage the seven hundreds and more business leaders who are here to use what I call the power of one To make change happen for women We've evaluated what has happened 20 years since we adopted the declaration in Beijing and we came up with a very mixed picture women Are out at home working about 50 percent with the modest increase from 40 percent But 75 percent of them are in the informal sector So they end low wages the jobs are unprotected no minimum wage So there's sustained poverty there But they are showing resilience and there's an opportunity to work with those women at that level Including access to final inclusion for them to become significant players and entrepreneurs and Both governments and private sector who are here can support the growth and the involvement of women in the economy Because they are part of the missing story That could propel Africa's growth women are not a charity case Their solution make us and we need to position and recognize them as such and as leaders of companies They can actually make the decisions to take full advantage of the women on the continent in addition to that unequal pay just from a rights Angle the fact that Women in Africa and 30 percent less than their male counterparts the global average is 24 percent Which is also bad But if every CEO's here would go back to their companies and just check how much women are paid Most time when I ask you all about that they actually don't know they've never checked And when they check sometimes they are shocked to to see that so that is just one thing that most CEOs can do And of course the issue of representation of women In decision-making bodies both in the private and in the public sector is quite an important Intervention that is that is that is needed. So if I could get some of that significantly moved forward Enembraced by the delegates who are here that that would be nice Bums here. Thank you very much Patrice. Can I turn to you for your overview on this year's meeting? Thank you I've just arrived from the giving pledge in in the US, but the three points I want to make is that The the world in Africa is is Going through a very challenging Economic period in Africa particularly as far as commodities are concerned the price of commodities and it is critically critically important that We recognize the The need to remain globally competitive in terms of a tracking investment both private investment and domestic investment as well as Investments from other parts of the world. I cannot over emphasize it, you know, sometimes We we We see good things and And we assume that the good things will continue Almost like we have a right to expect that the African economy will continue to do well But that is that's not correct the if you look at the history of Some of the most successful economies in the world when they cease to be a Competitive and an attractive destination for domestic and foreign investment The good work in terms of job creation economic upliftment economic growth Stalled and in many respects went backwards So it's it's critically important. I Need to emphasize as well in that regard the need to Perceptions about corruption in Africa is is increasing in certain areas There should be a zero tolerance as far as corruption is concerned critically important and And the last point I want to raise and and I hope these are some of the things that will be discussed Xenophobia So that South Africa in particular our future is inextricably intertwined with the future of the continent We have to be a country that welcomes and creates a Dispensation that allows all Africans and people from all over the world to do well the best economies in the world Have grown on the back of creating an environment that it's that is tolerant and also accommodating so We have to do a bit of hard talk that there's in some areas the uprisings in Burundi It is important that we Recognize the confidence we have in the people the democracy in the continent if you have terms of Office as a head of state and we are businessmen, but we have a duty to comment on these issues Doesn't send a good message That you want to change the Constitution to extend your term of office. It's it's it's not good and Of course, you know these things We are business people that people are more qualified to comment, but at times when We are under duty to comment on We must continue the good work as far as democracy. We must talk about that freedom of speech freedom all the basic political socio-political dispensations that have led to the success of many countries in the world prudent and responsible macro and Micro fiscal Regulatory environments and good work has been done stay the course so I hope those things will be discussed and and of course all of my friends Yeah, what you were saying and others It's not what the politicians say about investment in Africa. It's what the Investors say they make the decisions and we've got to make sure that they view us as a good place There's the only way we can create jobs have inclusive growth because at the end of the day We cannot grow if the middle class is not growing if there's no we reduce poverty create jobs and Create a future for all our all our people on the continent over to you it's hard to follow But certainly agree. We need that good governance the I'll go back to the theme for one second I'm not tight tried to duplicate the comments made by the the previous speakers but the theme of the Conference then and now reimagining Africa's future is a very important theme And if you look the first thing we did this morning is look at the people that are actually here Together despite an enormously busy global agenda was many people running around trying to do many things we have a record number of young people here a record number of women a record number of business partners that are present here at the web and about 700 business leaders and we equally have a Significant amount of people representing the different governments. That's from this part of the region So being together for two or three days don't underestimate the power of Having these people meet and talk exchange ideas create new projects and concepts to drive things forward Africa has done well the continent has grown consistently for about five percent and frankly it needs to grow to the five six seven percent If we really want to get where from silly is give everybody a chance and develop everybody And so the gross is actually to some extent encouraging compared to the rest of the world But it is below what we need if we want to lift the people out of poverty Especially in this part of the world you still see a significant gap between the Millennium development goals and what we need to achieve So only economic development can achieve that and increasingly that economic development is not coming anymore from overseas development aid The European markets and the US don't have that money anymore It has to come as as patrice is saying from the private sector So you have to create the environments for the private sector to be able to do better in the developed Developing markets alone the private sector is about 60% of the economy It's about 80% of the financial flows now and it's 90% of the job creation So if that security that clarity isn't there then obviously things will not happen as fast as they shoot And it's not the business that suffers frankly although we make the point for business It's the poor people that suffer this. Let's be very clear what we're talking here There are three topics of focus areas on the web which are already addressed by patrice from silly and Anthony Which is the first one is marshalling resources if you want to do anything We have to get the right resources behind that and the resources that are being talked here are around energy are around Infrastructure are around the financial resources and Anthony talked about but most importantly the human capital We have to create more leaders leaders like patrice coming from this region or from silly That actually take charge of a lot of the things that need to happen It should not come from outside of the region. It should be from inside of the region We have to talk about enabling markets if these markets are not enabling Food security is a great issue, but the markets often don't function the financial markets the trade zones How do we make them work the more efficient these markets function the better? We can create the environment for businesses to prosper and then last but not least obviously We have to inspire the creativity being here in South Africa and reminded of Elon Musk and his enormous creativity But he does it in California You know this country has more this continent has more young entrepreneurs than any other continent in the world So how do we harness that and create the future for many of the things that are coming from green technology to? Obviously the information aids that Mike undoubtedly will talk about this continent has a lot of potential to lead on innovation we We see this as a very crucial year and we see this as a very Important meeting because this is the year that we have the finance for development Conference in other Zababa in July. We have the sustainable development goals that we all need to agree on in September in New York and we have the COP 21 Which is the climate change negotiations in December in Paris and not surprisingly all of them are related and they are all about the development agenda The climate change is affecting the poor. There's no development if we don't attack climate change So the goals the sustainable development goals the word s the s from sustainable is a very important part of that and the Financing for development is the mechanisms. Hopefully that can unlock some of these things And what we find increasingly is as this continent grows as well It is actually the biggest risk to its growth is climate change This continent will be more subject to the effects of climate change Despite being a low carbon emitter than any other continent in the world And it will put people back at a faster rate and people start to realize Simply because we are at a point in the world if we like it or not that the cost of not acting is becoming higher than the cost of Acting so one of the most important things that we need to do is to have a Clear discussion with the facts about the fact that you can only get healthy growth if you also Attack the issues of climate change. There is no compromise anymore We will be launching the Africa progress report which was sponsored by Kofi Annan and we'll talk about what is needed to keep Africa growing whilst also be climate smart We're talking about agriculture to grow Africa initiative or the tropical forest alliance dealing with these issues of sustainable Agriculture dealing with these issues of preventing deforestation Just the food sector alone the deforestation basically driven by the demand of food The food sector alone is about one one-third of the global warming and we have to be sure that in Africa We don't import the bad practices from the Far East Because as the Spanish would say the Spanish have an expression that says pan por hoy Ambre por mañana you might think you have bread today, but you're starving tomorrow So if we don't do this properly We obviously don't get there and then the final thing that we will be focusing on as we've learned an enormous amount from the Ebola crisis On the positive side and on the negative side 11,000 innocent people of their lives 27,000 cases many of the health workers that went there were absolutely heroes Because more of them lost their lives than in any other crisis in the world where they volunteer themselves to be there So you talk about leaders you have some there that are enormous But we have to learn because it was a pretty chaotic response. It was very late It was uncoordinated and it affected the business community as well If you take my premise that we see a more volatile uncertain world We see more effects of climate change political instabilities Natural disasters pandemics because of a global interdependent world We need to come to grips with a better emergency Disaster system and as from silly rightfully says it always boils back to the use and to women as the first thing You need to focus on probably the highest return in the best investment So the fourth part we will be spending time on in the two days here is is to rally the young that are here And rally the young about around some of these major activities when we started to develop the Sustainable development goals and I had the honor to be part of the high-level panel at the request of the secretary general The main response we got was from young people in Africa They they understand which by the way is half of your population Oh, I'm gonna jump in on you for a moment because these are these I'm done and these people understand that they are not Only half today. They're a hundred percent tomorrow and they want to actively help shape that future And that is what we will be talking here as the last point over to Mike. Fantastic. Thank you Well, thank you, and I'll be most as think has been covered. I've been coming here since the late 70s It's great to be here and I've watched during those years the advance of Africa the challenges of Africa and the huge opportunities of Africa that have been discussed on resources on demographics and the challenges that remain on the spread of Democracy corruption and so on and and I guess that's why I'm very much here as chairman of BT Because what we do here is to look often run networks for global companies who increase thing looking to Africa to invest and African companies looking to invest regionally and across the world and it's critical We do that because one of the challenges is infrastructure. It's critical to a lot of things to be said about climate change about education There are clearly, you know You know really top of top graphic issues around spreading infrastructure There are regulatory issues about having the right levels of telecommunications So I'm here to listen and learn around these issues and these developments Which I think is so critical for this continent to what it can do and last but not nice I'd mentioned the other thing I think it's very important is intra African trade And I think the upcoming tripartite FTA on the 10th of June is critically important to reducing Barriers to trade right across the continent, which would be a huge impetus to the investment countries that you talked about Michael, thank you very much. Thanks to all our coaches We have to have a hard finish at 11 at 1045 So can I just get a sense in the room of who has a question if you could raise your hand? And we'll get a microphone to you and if you could tell us your name and your organization when you put your question so lady in the front and then Let me behind. Yes. Good morning Linda insore from business day I Just have to get some comments on how African growth can be Taken to the next stage Industrialization and moving away from pure commodity Growth commodity led growth, which doesn't lead anywhere if you could probably come if you could possibly comment on that Thank you sure and just take that question too. Okay So who wants to come in on commodity on getting away from commodity led growth? I Can see Well, it's very important You cannot just dig holes here and ship it out to other countries to then consume it and it sometimes even Import it again at a very high price. You know, it's ridiculous. We are in the tea business It's ridiculous to have the big tea plantations here to ship our tea and then have Africans pay an enormous amount of money To buy back the tea bags that come in from Europe or somewhere else So we all understand that so the most important thing is to develop these markets First of all, because if these markets have a critical mass, you can also go to the added value You take South Africa for example, which is more developed Unilever is a very very big business here. We make 95 percent of our products are Developed here and they're also produced here, but also the raw materials I made here So you create that ecosystem when these markets develop Infrastructure is a big issue for that if you pro for example sell products in Nigeria It's cheaper to have it come in from Vietnam nowadays and have it come in from Ghana next door And so you have to make these markets function here to be very efficient Otherwise you you have a bottomless pit So we're working on that in terms of energy, which is a very important thing in terms of infrastructures of a very important thing and what has been said before is you have to be sure that these markets function So governance is a very important part as well So that if you make these plans that you're not having the setbacks because of the rules laws or regulations or sometimes absence of that So if we focus on these basic drivers, which are not different than any development drivers I think you'll also see the manufacturing sector, which is absolutely crucial But next to the manufacturing sector. I just want to make one sentence is Don't forget agriculture Africa is going from one billion or 1.3 billion people to 2 billion people If we don't bring and the average age of a farmer is 57 years in Africa now If we don't bring the people back to small-holder farming and this continent to feeding itself We're not going to solve the enormous issues that this continent has of use and employment which are over 50% So it's value-added production, but the answer is not only there It's also in some of the other areas like agriculture Metrice We're not saying mining is not important commodities is not important the export of oil the export of minerals will For many many decades continue to be a critical part of the growth of of the African economy or the African economies the the emphasis is on diversification and and You know, we've had for many years not just in South Africa, but in many parts of the continent and spoken about beneficiation and and I think part of the secret in relation to beneficiation is you've got to make it Attractive profitable to the private sector it'll take off and you may have to look at Mechanisms like tax concessions. I mean look at if you'll see the most successful economies in the world they have Used various measures and instruments. You will not have to worry about beneficiation if If it makes commercial sense, but Can only happen when we do these things in partnerships with the governments and and the private sector But commodities will continue to be very very important With the needs of the economy because I think we are also losing the plot because we're continuing to produce the people That's a I'm not going to be the drivers of industrialization So and that means the discipline of both training institutions and our policies that's drive a Drive our people to to industrialization To need you want to claim I completely support the The education and skills point. I think particularly around the higher value-added industries Engineering high tech those types of things We should perfectly viable of Africa to develop vibrant segments in those areas and the other thing I would say is entrepreneurship is very important. It is a skill. It can be taught and in many ways As Paul said this is a continent of entrepreneurs But we need to give them the skills not only to get started, but also to scale up So skilling would be a big part of the agenda Michael from the technology Yeah, no, I mean I think it's all been said I think it's absolutely critical of this continent with this huge population very high levels of youth unemployment has been said to attract Investment with a bright infrastructure right regulatory demographic Democratic environment and the key that I would add more than anything else is on education and skills to the workforces Available to fulfill the needs as investment comes in which also deals with the social problem of youth unemployment and Technology has a key part to plan that Thanks to all of our co-chairs. I wish you all a successful meeting and Look forward to seeing more of you in the next two days. Thanks to everyone