Invest in women and the youth, urges President Barack Obama
Visiting President US Barack Obama has called on African governments to invest capital in the youth and women in order to facilitate their entrepreneurial efforts.
Speaking during the plenary session of the Global Entrepreneur Summit, President Obama said governments should the end the culture of being parasitic in their commercial efforts.
“There’s got to be a framework for access to capital, reduced regulatory barriers for the ability to set business effectively making sure that governments are facilitating not parasitic on entrepreneurial efforts, that’s our job,” he said as he gestured to his host President Uhuru Kenyatta.
He described entrepreneurship as the spark of prosperity and added that business leaders must realise the potential of the two groups.
“If half of your team is not playing, you have a problem. In too many countries, half of the team is women and youth,” President Obama told the summit.
In this regard, the US president announced that the US Government is contributing $100 million to support women initiatives.
On his part, President Kenyatta said his government is committed to providing an enabling environment for youth to come up with innovations that will solve the country’s problem.
“It’s just for us to really create the enabling environment as President Obama said, deal with some of the bottlenecks, some of the governance issues, deal with some of the structural problems that deny our people the ability to take advantage of the opportunities that actually exist,” he said.
President Kenyatta added: “We are ready, we are willing and we want to see what we can do to really help you move along and help us deal with the challenges that we are facing in this great continent.”
Speaking during the plenary session of the Global Entrepreneur Summit, President Obama said governments should the end the culture of being parasitic in their commercial efforts.
“There’s got to be a framework for access to capital, reduced regulatory barriers for the ability to set business effectively making sure that governments are facilitating not parasitic on entrepreneurial efforts, that’s our job,” he said as he gestured to his host President Uhuru Kenyatta.
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| Speaking during the plenary session of the Global Entrepreneur Summit, President Obama said governments should the end the culture of being parasitic in their commercial efforts/CFM |
“If half of your team is not playing, you have a problem. In too many countries, half of the team is women and youth,” President Obama told the summit.
In this regard, the US president announced that the US Government is contributing $100 million to support women initiatives.
On his part, President Kenyatta said his government is committed to providing an enabling environment for youth to come up with innovations that will solve the country’s problem.
“It’s just for us to really create the enabling environment as President Obama said, deal with some of the bottlenecks, some of the governance issues, deal with some of the structural problems that deny our people the ability to take advantage of the opportunities that actually exist,” he said.
President Kenyatta added: “We are ready, we are willing and we want to see what we can do to really help you move along and help us deal with the challenges that we are facing in this great continent.”
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