Big Chief!
Let me tell you a story.
3 years ago I was meant to deliver a keynote at @UNIONBANK_NG Centenary. The audience was going to be largely bank execs & corporate leaders from across Africa.
So I thought it apt to challenge them on this issue.
Let me tell you a story.
3 years ago I was meant to deliver a keynote at @UNIONBANK_NG Centenary. The audience was going to be largely bank execs & corporate leaders from across Africa.
So I thought it apt to challenge them on this issue.
I titled the talk “The last mover advantage: a case for innovation & tecnology”
& my intent was to challenge these leaders to see our sector as their next investment destination, partly for nationalistic reasons but also because it was starting to make ecocnomic sense.
& my intent was to challenge these leaders to see our sector as their next investment destination, partly for nationalistic reasons but also because it was starting to make ecocnomic sense.
2 days to the date of this event I was so looking foward to I returned from riding camels amongst other startups adventures with @OoTheNigerian @shollsman in Cairo.
I also returned with chronic fatigue, food poisoning and typhoid.
I also returned with chronic fatigue, food poisoning and typhoid.
The doctors clearly told me I was to sick to travel to Lagos. But I insisted. Signed paperwork and took my drop and injections to self admisnter.
I had to deliver this message on the need for more local investment participation. I was somewhat stupid then.
I had to deliver this message on the need for more local investment participation. I was somewhat stupid then.
I arrive Lagos very sickly and just after midnight and rehearsals that evening I collapsed, was foaming in the mouth and had to be rushed to the hospital.
I was hospitalized for over a week, and never got to deliver that speech.
I was hospitalized for over a week, and never got to deliver that speech.
Fast foward many months later, I get invited to speak at @TEDxEuston and I realize that this was even a bigger stage upon which to preach the gospel, so I title my talk “Who will own our future unicorns”
This time it was a room full of close to 1,000 members of the African diaspora and again my message to them was “Who will own our future unicorns”
That message apperantly resonated with so many people and so you can imagine my joy when just last week I meet Gerra the promoter of the @DiasporaAngels
Amongst many things we talked about he referenced how my @TEDxEuston talk inspired him to act on seeds sown by @TomiDee his own personal convictions and others.
To top it off, his UK based investment network of Africans in the diaspora just announced an investment in @vp_fund and @armengage supported @trovefinance
My point is these little steps matter. We have to back our own. We don’t want to be bitting our fingers in decades to come. Moreover several events in the last few weeks have further cemented the role of local capital even in matters of corporate governance.
African startups need capital with context.
You can read my intended Union bank keynote here :) : link.medium.com/O2dY670jh7
Or watch my tedx talk here:
Or watch my tedx talk here:
*drip*
