“Africa is shaped like a question mark, but it has the answer the world is looking for.”
That’s Ahunna Eziakonwa, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Regional Director for Africa, reframing how the world should see the continent.
Indeed:
- Nearly one-fifth of the world is African today
- The continent holds 60% of the world’s best solar resources, 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land, and 30% of global critical mineral reserves
- Africa’s internet economy is rapidly rising, with ‘iGDP’ projected at $180B today (up nearly 60% from 2020)
- The continent is the epicenter of mobile money globally and a world leader in fintech innovation
- Africa has the highest entrepreneurship rate globally with African founders building world-class organizations of all types — from job-creating SMEs to high-growth, VC-backed startups and beyond
Despite all this, the continent is primarily portrayed — consciously or unconsciously — as a puzzle to be solved, a market to be exploited.
“The world’s relationship with Africa must shift from transactional extraction to complementary partnership,” Eziakonwa emphasizes.
And narratives play a key role in that shift.
When the world sees Africa as a question mark, it invests accordingly — cautiously, conditionally, temporarily. Get in and get out. Or never get in at all.
When it sees Africa as an answer, investment becomes a more stable, long-term, and mutually-beneficial partnership.
But to get there, Eziakonwa argues somewhat counterintuitively, “We need to stop talking about [Africa’s] potential.”
Doing so, she suggests, entrenches a perspective that sees Africa as perpetually “emerging” — always tomorrow’s story, never today’s focus.
“The reality is that Africa is here. Africa is now,” she says.
And she’s not just talking the talk.
Through programs like timbuktoo Africa, an initiative to mobilize $1 billion for African startups, Eziakonwa and her team are walking the walk: igniting innovation-driven prosperity across the African continent and repositioning the continent as a solution, not a question.
What’s your take?
Do you agree that talk of Africa’s future potential year after year, decade after decade is actually holding the continent back? Why or why not?
- Do you agree that talk of Africa’s future potential year after year, decade after decade is actually holding the continent back? Why or why not?
- What would it take to change global investment patterns from “get in and get out” to genuine long-term partnership with African markets?
- How can entrepreneurs and investors across the continent lead the narrative shift from Africa’s potential tomorrow to Africa’s performance today — and what role should international partners play?
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