10 Dec 2023

 Africans have been challenged to build tools and develop strategies that will make the continent’s future desirable.

Marking the last day of the 5^th  edition of the Kusi Ideas Festival in Tlokweng, on Friday, Nation Media Group (NMG) chief executive officer, Mr Stephen Gintama, said Africans needed to have a vision of the future they desired, then strategise as a collective on how best to make it happen.

He expressed gratitude that the two-day festival provided an opportunity for Africans to share various strategies and policies that needed to be put in place to make Africa the next growth frontier.

“The two days have been exceptional to say the least. We have listened in on riveting conservation about and the steps that we need to take individually and collectively to achieve Agenda 2063: The Africa we want,” he added.

In line with one of the festival's objectives, which was to create a winning future for its people, NMG CEO said he was particularly challenged by President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi’s sentiments that ‘the Africa we want is possible and is achievable if only we are determined to achieve it.’

“He went on to remind us that our continent is the cradle and future of humankind, representing the best hope for conservation, providing a rich biodiversity,” added Mr Gintama.For that reason, the NMG CEO thanked President Masisi, his government and the people of Botswana for the hospitality and a warm welcome.He also expressed gratitude to Zimbabwe President, Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa, Rwanda Prime Minister, Dr Edouard Ngirente and Tanzania Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy, Dr Doto Biteko, for honouring the invitation to the Presidential Round Table.

Mr Gintama thanked President Mnangagwa for reiterating the need for a united Africa, which featured consistently in all the panel discussions.Since discussions at the festival centered around creation of job opportunities for the youth, the need for a borderless continent and the setting up of a 2115 megawatts hydropower plant in Tanzania, among others, it was a clear that Africa was moving in the right direction to achieve its dream and aspirations.

Sharing some of Africa’s success stories, the NMG CEO expressed delight that countries like Rwanda had built ambitious irrigation projects, whislt Botswana was aiming to build one of the world’s biggest irrigation schemes to transport 495 million cubic meters, a year, of water from the Chobe-Zambezi River through about 1 250 kilometres of pipelines to its arid south.

The Agenda 2063, he said, envisaged a cultural revolution, adding that in the last decade, about ten world-class museums had opened in Africa as the Grand Egyptian Museum, which opened in Egypt as the world’s largest archaeological museum.

The combined annual auction worth of African art, he said was worth over more than double its 2016 value, today. On the business front, Mr Gintama said Lagos-based Access Bank, which was one of Africa’s biggest, was set to launch its first full banking service in Asia in the first quarter of 2024.

Mr Gintama thanked all the event organisers, speakers and the partners who believed in NMG and supported its vision to make the festival a success.  

This, he said had been the most successful Kusi Ideas Festival, with over 2000 in person attendees, 31 speakers and over 1 500 virtual attendees. For that reason, he applauded both Botswana and NMG teams for working tirelessly to make the festival a success. ENDS