Economic sustainability was a key topic at the fifth annual Opportunity: Africa conference in Wilmington Friday.
Nigerian icon Tony Elumelu kicked off the conference morning, which attracted a diverse array of African leaders, community members, non-profits and NGOs from Delaware and surrounding states.
He’s well known in Africa for promoting a term called “Africapitalism,” an economic philosophy advocating for the private sector’s commitment to Africa’s development through long-term investments that drive economic prosperity.
And he’s also known for an entrepreneurship program seeking to identify and provide $100 million in funding for 10,000 African startups.
Yemi Taiwo is Nigerian like Elemelu and works for Penn Medicine. He and other Africans at the conference Friday said they believe in Elemelu, and that together with the help of other powerful economists and leaders, he has the potential to sway politicians to help make economic progress.
“And that is what creates the ripple effect of liberation from poverty, maternal death: those kind of basic issues that kill Africans," he said.
Like many Africans living in Delaware and neighboring states, he eventually wants to return to his native country of Nigeria to use his skills to help others back at home.
Sam Weedor lives in Delaware, but is originally from Liberia. He says innovation is a key component to Africa's economic progress, as well as safety. He received a master's in homeland security with a specialty in surveillance, and wants to use what he's learned to help arm his country and Africa against the terrorist group Boko Haram.
"Boko Haram is terrorizing the community, the region," Weedor said. "If we're able to put a surveillance camera or network system in all of the states in all of the west African countries, we'd know what their capacities look like. We'd gather intelligence through our virtual networks and interface with other countries."
Oretha Mcclain is also a native of Liberia, a graduate of the University of Delaware and a nurse at Christiana Care.
She was among those at Friday's Opportunity: Africa conference hosted by Sen. Chris Coons (D-Delaware).
She say she's happy to see a shift in perception about Africa - and implementation of policies that reflect that change of perspective.
“The focus is not only on AIDS but all public partner relationships, they’re also looking at education, healthcare," she said. "And it’s a transformational approach instead of a transactional approach.”
Mcclain says Africans’ main concerns are ignorance, disease and poverty.
She called the Liberian healthcare system deplorable, and is personally looking into telemedicine as a means to revamp health care in her home country that’s been ravished by civil war and the Ebola crisis.
