The stage is getting bigger for the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Forum; and so are the multiplicity of roles it is inadvertently assuming, and rising expectations.
Having five African Presidents, over 60 global speakers from the public and private sectors across three continents together is a large private sector platform for empowerment and generation of ideas.
At the two-day forum, which held in Abuja recently were Paul Kagame, President, Republic of Rwanda; Macky Sall, President, Republic of Senegal; Félix Tshisekedi, President, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Vice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria; and Hon (Dr.) Ruhakana Rugunda, Prime Minister, Republic of Uganda, who represented President Yoweri Museveni.
Also present to interrogate a related issue, “The Role of Healthcare in Economic Transformation,” were healthcare leaders in the private and public sectors. They included Dr. Awele Elumelu, Trustee, Tony Elumelu Foundation and Founder/CEO, Avon Medical Practice; Mrs. Aisha Buhari, First Lady, Federal Republic of Nigeria; Mme. Djena Kaba Condé, First Lady of Guinea; Mme. Keïta Aminata Maiga, First Lady, Mali; Gilles Carbonnier, Vice President, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC); Oulimata Sarr, Regional Director, U.N. Women Central and West Africa; and Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organisation.
An assembly of so many people of diverse backgrounds has huge potentials for tourism and marketing of the country, a platform to attack problems with tested perspectives and for forging stronger inter-African relations. But it also means many more people have eyes from around the world are watching the Foundation. Continue reading…