by Tolu Omoyeni

This article is an in-dept and disruptive look at Africa through the eyes of man who believes Africa’s instability can leap frog the continent through innovation that births a future where billions of young Africans seize the wave of future change and become unstoppable.

Why are you interested in Africa?
Right now there is a chaotic clash happening all around the world between outdated
20th Century structures, policy, and thinking versus the unstoppable transformation
that 21st Century reality has brought with it. In nations around the globe, die-hards
are fighting to save elite, entitled traditional economies and power structures.
Interestingly, even though Africa has many challenges, it does not have the problem
of being stuck in the industrial mire of the past century. Unlike the Western world,
Africa has a choice.

The next decade will define the African continent in unexpected ways. The train to
widely distributed prosperity across Africa is just getting on the tracks, and it could
become a bullet train going 300km an hour within a decade. Moreover, Africa is
harboring the most powerful force shaping its future: the destiny of demographics.
By 2050, Africa will have over a billion people in the most productive phase of their
lives. An entire generation of African men and women will have been raised in times
of exponential growth. Their innate ingenuity around survival coupled with their
creative energy and access to technology will dramatically alter Africa’s future.

My interest in Africa is simple: I believe in creating platforms that catapult people to
greater opportunity, fulfillment and success. At 24 I built one of the largest global
networks for entrepreneurs in the world, Entrepreneur Week, which has led me on
the journey of executing 70+ public and private projects across 5 continents by age
33. As an experiential learner, not an ivory tower theorist like other futurists, I have
immersed myself at the ground-level across the world, from Rio to Santiago, Kabul
to Dubai, Manila to Dhaka, Belgrade to Madrid, and Accra to Kigali.

Leveraging this on-the-ground wisdom, my experience across Africa shows me it is
ripe to become the ultimate innovation platform. I know for a fact that Africa is the
continent of opportunity and it is at a tipping point. I also know for sure Africa is the
future… right now! Too many people on the continent and especially throughout the
world underestimate Africa’s emerging potential. The advent of rapid change will
exponentially accelerate over these next few years. You will see for yourself: 30
years of progress will happen in Africa over the next 5 years.

With this in mind, it is rewarding for me to work side-by-side with passionate
progressive leaders in companies, cities and nations across Africa, especially those
who are not afraid of the impending tsunami of change, and who are ready to seize
the momentum of the 21st Century instead of being crushed by it.

So much has been said about the ‘Africa Rising’ narrative. What is your take?

The “Africa Rising” narrative brings a limited scope. It’s like saying the future of this
continent depends on an ability to bake a cake: to get it correct we need all the right
ingredients together in the right way, and with a good mix, Africa magically rises.
That kind of theoretical, data-centric thinking is perpetuated by the World Bank, the
IMF, the UN and numerous other well-intentioned bodies. But frankly, that’s an
unleavened mix which won’t stand the heat of an exponential and unpredictable 21st
Century. With the amount of latent creative energy on this continent, Africa should
and will experiment in unique ways. Instead of looking back and drawing on a
recipe from the 20th Century industrialization cookbook, Africans must mix brand
new ingredients together to become densely networked future-forward
communities. While the rest of the world is pondering Africa’s rise through a
Western lens, the young men and women across Africa will be cooking with rocket
fuel, going far beyond traditional barriers and doing moonshots over conventional
mindsets.

Now I do agree business leaders and policymakers still need to be empowered with
the correct tools, paradigms, and platforms to become FutureReady for what the
21st Century has in store for Africa. The potential is undoubtedly here. But
propelling ahead on rocket fuel will be dangerous, so it is important to launch from
an adaptive and nimble platform. For this reason, in the time that Africa is taking off,
there are three main challenges on the continent which have to be addressed:
insidious government indifference, the non-operational but maturing business
environment, and a vast lack of skilled workers.

The first obstacle for Africa’s impending future is that governments have got to stop
their indifference. When I say stop the indifference, I mean stop their selfpreservation
mode. This behavior has become ingrained in Africa, the mindset that
government is where money is being made. It’s an insidious mentality installed by
the colonialists, where power and wealth were tied to bureaucratic control. In postcolonial
times, with no business infrastructure in place, government became the
employer of note, and presidents became perpetual money-mongers. Africa suffers
broadly from a lack of genuine efforts by its governments in power today to uplift
their people from the poverty line. Instead, governments use infrastructure,
education and food as weapons in a war to win votes that keep them in the seats
that make them and their circle of cronies an ever-increasing fortune.

Let’s be clear about Africa’s future: business is what has to make money. It is in the
discipline of business, and not in government or through government, that wealth
should be made. Otherwise, as we’ve seen for the past 100 years, money-making
through government retards the opportunity for innovation and value-add businesses to flourish. Policymakers need to understand that fostering prosperity through business opportunities is the only way enough wealth will be created across the continent in order for billions of people to live in a functional, inclusive and resilient environment.

The obstacle to business maturity is understanding how to build greater momentum
in an evolving African business landscape. It’s imperative for Africa to drop the
MBA-driven Western thinking that revolves around linear cause-and-effect strategic
planning. Africa’s future has several paths: some are possible, a few are probable
and many are desired. With the unbounded thinking that is often found on this
continent, African businesses can shape those possibilities and desires into future
probabilities. Instead of focusing on 5-year plans and 10-year strategies, African
companies need to be adapting their business models around agile scenarios that
are responsive to the continent’s uncertainty and buoyed by its ever-present risk.
Unfortunately, today African countries are held victim by continued government
trade policies which retard the opportunity to focus on innovation and developing
new verticals with resulting high value-add exports. While policymakers pay lip
service, the fact is these agreements being signed end up undermining the critical
manufacturing base the continent needs to leapfrog its current reality.

Unfortunately, because money is in politics, we see how governments remain
indifferent to truly helping the business landscape to mature in healthy, sustainable,
and inclusive ways.

Remember, Africans are building for future business needs; we don’t have to evolve
the industrial platform. We need to seize innovation and technology – right now. Not
surprisingly, Africa has already demonstrated its ability to create unique solutions
for under-served opportunities. Just look at mobile communications and mobile banking on the continent – we won’t be building brick and mortar infrastructure when it’s not needed. FutureReady business maturity in Africa will evolve through businesses that fail fast and learn rapidly in an infrastructure-deprived but future fueled environment that’s boosted by the creative energies of tens of millions of Millennials, the world’s transformation generation.

This brings me to the third challenge. Africa is the youngest continent in the world.
Demographics are actually our destiny – and demographics will deliver for Africa.
The 1.1 billion population will double within 35 years, and the continent will have almost 1 billion humans under the age of 18, and another billion in the productive workforce aged between 18 and 59. We already see that kind of opportunity emerging with 7 of the 10 fastest-growing economies residing in Africa.

I speak highly of Millennials as change drivers, but here in Africa, we still need to see
more and more young people moving earlier and earlier from theoretical
classrooms directly into hands-on business ventures. In the old-school paradigm,
students spend a quarter of their entire life striving to attain paper qualifications
that look pretty on a wall. Yet, what’s needed across Africa are people who learn by
doing – those who think critically, who can adapt, and who are resilient. These are
natural qualities in Millennials – thinking, questioning and challenging.

The Western-inspired education system is too parrot-style and is wholly irrelevant
for the reality on the ground in Africa. I predict information technology will
revolutionize education in Africa, and within the next five years young people will
wake up to the fact that a paper education does not equal a job opportunity. This
reality will force greater ingenuity and industriousness, compelling the education
system to rapidly evolve. Africa needs questioners, critical thinkers, and sensemakers.
The people who will really succeed in the 21st Century across Africa are those who are experiential tinkerers, not the ivory tower educated elites.

What is the place of innovation in addressing Africa’s challenges?

You may not realize it, but Africa and the word “innovation” are synonymous. Across
the continent, innovation is not just some cool fad for kids fed with a silver spoon
like it is in America. Do not forget, Africa is the cradle of mankind. This is where life
sparked. It’s where fighting for survival sharpened our senses and challenged our
innate creativity. Even today, here in Nigeria, just as it is true in Ghana, Egypt,
Tanzania or Zimbabwe: human ingenuity is often what ensures you stay alive.
Innovation in Africa now has a new impetus. Information technology can both
extend reach and accelerate intent. Take this ever-increasing information
technology, add Africa’s creative energy, and you’re going to see exponential impact.

Why is Africa ripe for innovation? Because there’s such a deep hunger here; young
Africans are ready for solutions that are sustainable, resilient and inclusive. You’re
starting to hear these young voices get louder and louder across the continent. They
want effective leadership, pushing for better opportunities and demanding
accountable governance.

We’re seeing the emergence of shared values inspired by the promise of a brand
new century. With the right vision for innovation and the right platforms for
accelerating information technology, Africa can leverage its global late-comer
advantage to unexpected heights. There is a massive wealth of scientific and
technological information lying dormant across the world that can be easily
imported and leveraged right now. Most of it can be found through remote
keystrokes. In order to leapfrog current on-the-ground realities, emerging
Millennials just need access to be able to put existing knowledge to constructive use.
Across Africa, young people are already shaping levels of access to create, innovate,
and self-express. For instance, here in West Africa we’re seeing hands-on youth
engagement programs such as the GhanaThink Foundation, visionary innovation
community projects such as SiliconAccra, and emboldened social media movements
such as the backlash against President Buhari’s #ChangeBeginsWithMe campaign.
My job as a futurist is to motivate the courageous visionaries to build properly
developed innovation capacity for their companies, cities and regions in order to
ensure Africa achieves sustainability, resilience and inclusivity – at a faster rate.

What do you think of African innovations?

As we launch ourselves into the early decades of a new century we have this
unwritten, undeclared credo pushing us forward – believing that we’re standing at
the edge of a “smart” future. People think we’re deploying “smart” processes and
systems. But this picture is false. It’s only a half-truth at best, and it is giving us a
wrong sense of security about the 21st Century. Do you know what is really
happening today? Tapping away on phones gives all of us a fake sense of distance
and connectedness. We’re together, yet we have never been more on our own. We
are creating cities and communities held together by infrastructure and
smartphones, but in the process we are losing out on the very energy that drives all
of our creative endeavors: human ingenuity.

This is what makes African innovators different. Sure, you’re seeing kids on corners
getting sucked into smartphone virtual life. But that same kid goes home to a house
crowded with three generations of family and extended family. That kid sees filthy
open gutters and people around him suffering and struggling to survive. That kid’s
creativity is not bounded in its thinking. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is dealing
with limited enthusiasm, steered forward by deeply entrenched grey-haired
imperialist middlemen, which results in incremental innovation gains. Africa has an
infinite number of triggers for spurring creativity because necessity is the ultimate
mother of invention. Take this on-the-ground fact, place it onto a blank canvas with
unlimited possibility, and Africans can paint whatever future reality they want for
their continent.

But, and this is a big “but,” to capitalize on innovation across the continent over this
next decade, young Africans have to agitate for better leadership in business and
throughout government. They have to use their votes and their voices now to create
the kind of leadership Africa needs for the 21st Century. Innovation thrives when
leaders realize they serve the people, not when it’s stifled by today’s oppressive
reality in some African countries; where the people are still serving those few elites
in power. Instead of pushing for a hierarchical control agenda in rigidly structured
environments, future-forward African leaders will value openness and drive
opportunity for their people. In the end, leadership is about justice, and justice is
born from transparency, which only happens when all of us know we are included.

The days of perpetual presidents are numbered as young people across Africa find
their voice and embrace dissent as a way to bring change for a better future.

In your opinion, what kind of innovation does Africa really need?

Structural innovation.

Whether it’s the African Union, the president of an African country, the governor of
a state, or the CEO of a multi-billion dollar African company; they all need to
understand that there are structural innovation forces that will unlock Africa’s
opportunities in the 21st Century. In its base form, structural innovation is a
cumulative sum, where first you capture creative energy and then you shape it with
technology. Combined, these two forces generate new shared values, and these
values become the cultural force which drives the kind of human ingenuity that
creates solutions and opportunities where more people benefit, more of the time.

Structural innovation happens when people come together. What I am talking about
is Africa’s ability to create forward momentum by leveraging that Ubuntu spirit
among people that encourages collaboration, collective contributions and cocreation.

Second, structural innovation occurs when there’s planned technology, and
where technology solutions accelerate the intent we collectively express. There are
great examples of how technology is redefining Africa’s geographic and resource
limitations – but as we’re seeing drones delivering blood supplies to rural villages,
we have to ensure we’re planning and not regulating creativity out of existence.

Structural innovation occurs when the forces of directed innovation, accessible
information technology and shared values are brought together with people at the
center. Only then will we witness a more inclusive and just Africa that can succeed
in rewriting the cyclical poverty-war-disease narrative. Ensuring a fulfilling life of
prosperity for all Africans is the goal, not simply eradicating a Western metric called
“poverty.”

Structural innovation isn’t inherited or imported. Africa needs leaders who have the
courage to discuss the irrelevance of the manufactured borders left in place by the
colonialists. Leaders who will cut the “insert well-intentioned world organization
here” strings that pull us away from structural innovation. The future of Africa lies
in resilient, adaptable, and cooperative region-states and megacity-communities,
not unyielding Western-inspired nation-states with arbitrary lines and strings attached
sponsors.

Regarding cities and states, mayors and governors need to understand how to
develop inclusive innovation communities which accelerate opportunities for
collaboration and creativity, instead of suppressing it. Structural innovation means
investing in infrastructure to allow the supply market to develop. Africa will move
towards more functional economies as we see an increase in informed, empowered,
and prosperous consumers who seek durable products and services which meet
their unique needs. Structural innovation needs governance that supports and
drives economic opportunity for all, with tangible incentives focused on
strengthening the value-add manufacturing sector. Structural innovation also
includes implementing measures that result in more collaborative financing
instruments which focus on working hand-in-hand with the local communities from
which they operate.

Regarding business, CEOs need to understand the five core future trends that will
catapult business growth in the 21st Century. First, there’s the devolution of power,
where businesses need to move away from silo structures and control hierarchies.
In their place, they need to create collaborative innovation hubs. These hubs thrive
on the second trend, which sees the evolution of networks over systems. More
simply stated, systems are closed, while networks are open and a more fluid
environment for structural innovation. People dynamics are also transforming the
prospects of business across Africa, demonstrated by the significant rise in
communities with shared values, and modern-day digital tribes formed around
networks of trust. Lastly, business leaders must understand how structural
innovation seizes the emergent opportunities of a borderless world for doing
business in the 21st Century.

Equally important, Africa needs to escape the ongoing structural violence of “create,
loot and share” mindsets, which continue to impair the ability of every single one of
the 54 countries on this continent to meet basic fundamental human needs.

What deliberate efforts are needed by African governments to encourage home-made innovation?

The most deliberate action African governments can take to drive positive change is
to stop trying to force their forward-hungry economies and infrastructure into
backward-compatible paradigms left over from the 20th Century.

What I mean is that for the past few decades Africa has just been a dumping ground
for the West, eager to get rid of its hand-me-downs, conventional wisdom, and
never-ending stream of manufactured obsolescence. Just take a drive through any
major African capital city, from Cairo to Kampala to Abuja to Harare, and
somewhere along the roadside you see heaps of second-hand clothing, twisted
plastic and metal graveyards of dead televisions and rusted refrigerators. That
reverse mentality, which accepts cargo containers full of the West’s castoffs, prevails
in backward-focused governments too. Bail outs, hand-outs and poorly thought out
economic stimulus agreements are a toxic trifecta of economic quicksand crushing
Africa’s unlimited potential for broadly distributed prosperity. African governments
must be progressively just if they’re going to encourage, nurture, and develop homemade
innovation.

I would strongly encourage African leaders in business and government to look
again at what they’re thinking, planning and doing. Those who are ready to develop
environments for inclusive change need to use the anticipated future to disturb the
present. Becoming a future-forward leader means being willing to find the unique
alternatives that Africa can offer against the continued Western white noise that
presses for backward-compatibility. The engine of future-oriented growth is
powered by human ingenuity that finds expression in a robust business
environment, where small and medium enterprises have access to economic
opportunity and a fair chance to flourish. Once that change in mentality has
occurred, where African leaders feel the pull of the future instead of the anchors of
the past, then any policymaker or CEO can grab hold of the emerging 21st Century
tsunami of change.

How can we build a movement around innovation in Africa?

The solution is both complex and dynamic. Government plays the most integral part
in developing sustainable innovation environments over the long-term so let us
focus there.

One after the other, national efforts towards spurring innovation are becoming
trapped under a suffocating blanket of concurrent social, economic, and political
pressures. These pressures are increasing and compounding from all sides and
angles – simultaneously. African countries must address these intersecting
challenges which include: structural unemployment, disempowered poor, political
gridlock, civil unrest, eroding social cohesion, lack of youth engagement, and violent
extremism.

My message is clear: embrace the chaos. Welcome the disruption. Chaos by design is
a forward-compatible strategy in the 21st Century. If leaders want to build and
capture movement around innovation in Africa, then they need to understand one
simple fact: instability creates opportunity. But such opportunity has to be
intentionally seized. The energy of disruption has to be captured and purposefully
directed for future growth to blossom. Here is the complexity. When things are
falling apart, that’s when gaps are also created that can be filled by innovative
thinking.

Building a movement to spur innovation in Africa means directly investing in
Africans themselves, and looking inward for creative and unique solutions for the
continent. Let’s take education. We don’t have enough schools in Africa, but in the
21st Century, do we even need these institutions? What’s the point of trying to build
obsolete classrooms instead of exploring alternative and innovative education
solutions which will be more inclusive for the African way of life? We have already
proven the leapfrog can be accomplished when the public vision and private will is
there, we did a decade ago in mobile communications. We have also done it most
recently in banking. So why not use future-fueled innovation to solve Africa’s
education opportunities? Instead, here on the African continent we’re just waiting to
be colonized again – this time by Western educators pushing their branded
universities into the continent’s open spaces to be filled with Africa’s ever-growing
youth. If this ridiculous backwards-compatible approach continues, Africans will
surely be paying for the theoretical education and paper wall stamp they have been
trained to want, but they will completely miss the hands-on FutureReady education
opportunities surrounding them – that which ensures their skills are competitive in
the 21st Century.

Let Africans innovate. Placing humans first does not mean making a promise of
equal outcomes for everybody. History has shown time and again that such
promises fail. However, the goal is to create opportunity which is available to all,
and not just the elite few.

What will be your advice to an African entrepreneur you are meeting for the
first time?

First, understand that entrepreneurship anywhere in the world is a journey. Accept
that entrepreneurship is unpredictable and be willing to commit your time, energy
and money to the entrepreneur lifestyle for nothing less than a decade of uncertain
outcomes and opportunities – where your biggest lessons won’t come from
textbooks, but from iterating on failure. Think about it, do you learn to swim by
reading a book? Of course not. I will be honest with African entrepreneurs: if you are
not willing to commit to your vision for at least ten years, your vision is already
dead in the water. There are only ten-year “overnight successes” and if you think
otherwise see my next point.

Second, do not believe 90% of what you read in flashy commercial magazines and
entrepreneurship blogs. They are in the business of marketing fairytales to attract
readers to their product, not to actually provide you with a clear, step-by-step
journey to entrepreneurial success. Your end goal is that you want to achieve
happiness, health, and an ability to provide for your family. But there’s no one-size fits-all
solution. You have to know yourself – why you do things – before you can
know which entrepreneurs will be good role models for what you want to do, and
how you want to do it. Even then, you still have to forge your own path.

My third piece of advice is that when searching for an idea, entering a market or
scaling a product here in Africa, seek to do the opposite of what everyone else is
doing in developed markets abroad. To be innovative, don’t ask yourself: “How can I
implement this business idea that worked so well in America over here in Africa?”
Instead, ask yourself: “What can we do in Africa that would never work in America?”
Believe me, by definition, going where nobody else is moving means that is precisely
where the opportunity lies. Once there, it is just a matter of how creative you can get
to find the ultimate scalable business model to solve one of Africa’s grand
challenges. Turning away from easy-to-imitate solutions will be harder, but it forces
you to become more resourceful and creative, making the barrier to innovation inspired
success in Africa much lower over the long-term.

Lastly, always remember one thing – luck is an accumulation of superior effort and
focused execution. That is a fundamental truth for entrepreneurs all across the
world!

African entrepreneurs have often complained that financing is one of the
biggest challenges they face; do you agree?

I do not agree at all, actually. This is a conventional response due to a two-sided
problem, and money is never the actual root of the problem. On one side, for the
entrepreneurs, the real issue normally falls into four buckets: it’s a bad idea, a dire
lack of creativity in the business, an unclear value proposition, or there is no
substantial market validation. Money is selfish; it always seeks the best return for
itself. So if there is a great idea or product, and you’re out there hustling day-in and
day-out, trust me – the capital will find you.

On the other side, both the entrepreneurs and the investors across Africa are wholly
uneducated about the repercussions of investor money trickling into a business too
early. Doing so creates an extremely toxic and normally fatal outcome. Investors
care about making money for the sake of money, not about the glorious vision of
some young African founder or the future of the continent and its people. That’s why
you see this unprecedented trend in Africa where right off the bat, the investors are
taking almost a full one-third of the equity in a startup, and they’re shoving fledgling
entrepreneurs into a funnel that often dead-ends in Silicon Valley or a multinational
acquire-hire deal that kills the initial big African idea. Money too early means your
vision is D.O.A. – “dead on arrival.”

Therefore, because most investors across the continent choose to remain ignorant
about how to best cultivate African entrepreneurs, they push the founder to do all
the wrong things, at many of the wrong times, simply because they’re looking to
receive a return on their investment or a speedy fail-and-move-on-to-the-next-one
exit strategy way too early. Yes, this is what happens in Silicon Valley, but here in
Africa, startups aren’t money ball commodities – they are the only path for more
than one billion people to move forward fast into a prosperous reality.

One area I do agree: African governments can and should do more about making
financing available to small and medium-sized businesses. Ease of doing business is
wretched across the continent, so this must be a priority for African leaders,
together with much-needed tax concessions and better incentives to fuel
commercial lending to the private sector.

What is your dream for Africa?

I see a world where a billion young Africans seize the wave of future change and
become unstoppable. Instead of allowing the continent to be a playground for the
interests of outdated colonial empires, Africans quit looking backward, leveraging
their innate creative abilities to shape a new future propelled by uniquely
innovative African solutions.

How do we get there? First, by understanding that the fortunes of the continent
should not, cannot and will not be left to the discretions of money-mongering
politicians. Africa’s gateway to transcend the realities of today resides within the
collective engine of business, fueled by its powerhouse of a Millennial Generation,
accelerated by planned technology, and driven relentlessly by a shared hunger for
all Africans who want to live a better life. Second, Africans must consciously choose
to support only the companies and investors who are seeking to secure a future in
Africa by working hand-in-hand with local communities, and who are committed to
investing for the long-term in African innovation.

If done right, Africa can catapult itself through an infinite powerhouse of creative
energy accelerated by planned information technology, because when we combine
these forces that are already rippling across the continent, we get a new culture of
building solutions for Africans, by Africans, informed by shared values and a
growing pride in being African. Africa has the late comer advantage of being able to
invent its future. It will do this through networked communities that are mobile and
connected across vast distances. Its young entrepreneurs, artists, architects,
thinkers and tinkerers become innovators, building an ever-growing selection of
products focused on African needs – durability, functionality, and affordability.
In my opinion, only one question matters for Africa’s future: when will Africa’s
volcano of creative energy erupt?

 

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Gary Whitehill is the 21st Century futurist who believes that unstable times create incredible opportunities. Since 2011, Gary has journeyed through more than 60 countries, immersing himself in turmoil and transition. Where others see forces of power and control being eroded globally, Gary sees disruption with opportunities to re-create. He believes humanity can be enriched through inclusivity, cooperation and participation. Gary’s future-by-design model shows how we can leverage the emerging energy of 7.4B people to create a better future. He catapults people and their visions into an accelerated reality by using cultivated innovation, directed technology, shared values and inclusive justice to build the bridge between today’s uncertainty and tomorrow’s smarter future. In his 2016 Humans Deserve Better tour, Gary is working alongside business leaders, governments, communities and organizations to build launch pads, fire up the human-ingenuity rocket fuel, and hurtle ideas forward to make the future happen now.