Africa Solutions, Global Challenges
On December 12, 2018, the IE Africa Center held the “Africa Solutions, Global Challenges” forum in Accra, Ghana. The event was designed to create a space to discuss how the African continent’s unique innovations can offer an instructive path to the rest of the world.
With topics ranging from the entrepreneurship ecosystems, to African Fintech’s impact on global banking and financial renaissance, attendees were invited to consider how African change makers are solving dynamic global challenges. A number of IE’s senior leadership and IE Africa Center members were present to provide their insights and expert viewpoints, among them Executive President of IE University, Santiago Iñiguez de Onzoño,.
Iñiguez de Onzoño, speaking on the global need to reinvent education, outlined how IE, rather than dictate or impose solutions, was eager to learn and grow with our African partners in innovation and in the transformation of higher education.
“We need to enhance Africa as a place for business opportunities for developing your career or becoming an entrepreneur,” Iñiguez de Onzoño observed. At present, Africa is uniquely positioned to use education as a way to explore the potential of their youth to catapult the continent to the forefront of tomorrow’s marketplace.
By 2030, projections show that half of the planet’s 18-year-olds will be African. The opportunity for investment in Africa as the new frontier of education, industry and entrepreneurship is evident. With IE at the helm, backed by a long-standing commitment to innovation and cutting-edge learning strategies, the possibilities are endless.
At IE, we hold the importance of global education at the core of everything we do. That’s why we’re spearheading initiatives to drive educational excellence in Africa, which will encourage the sharpest young minds and the most promising industries to find growth opportunities throughout the continent.
This event also served as a catalyst for developing new African partnerships with the speaker companies, paying special attention to the upcoming IE Africa Center Social Innovator’s Retreat which will be held in the Summer of 2019. The IE Africa Center Social Innovators Retreat is designed to create a unique knowledge generation and sharing intellectual retreat for Africa’s most cutting edge social innovators who are looking to find new tools and partners with which to scale their work.
Learn more about our IE Africa Center today and discover the countless initiatives they are currently engaged in.