He joined other heads of state including Macky Sall of Senegal, President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Felix Tshisekedi, and Uganda’s Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda and Nigeria Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo.
They also attended a dinner hosted by Tony Elumelu yesterday evening ahead of TEFForum2019.
Tony Onyemaechi Elumelu (born 22 March 1963) is a Nigerian economist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist.
He is the chairman of Heirs Holdings, the United Bank for Africa, Transcorp and founder of The Tony Elumelu Foundation. Elumelu holds the Nigerian national honors, the Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) and Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR). He was recognized as one of “Africa’s 20 Most Powerful People in 2012” by Forbes magazine
The event is an opportunity for young women and men, from African countries to meet, learn and network with the broader African and global entrepreneurship ecosystem.
It also provides an opportunity for political leaders and policymakers to interact with a new generation of African business leaders, who are transforming Africa’s economic trajectory.
Kagame along with his counterparts have today morning featured on a panel discussion with over 5,000 African entrepreneurs.
As he featured the panel discussion, President Kagame shared Rwanda’s transformational journey. He said that considering the past of the country, Rwanda had no alternative with the only way trying to go up and up.
He said that the first thing the country had to deal with was the mindset of its people ‘because there is a history where people were used to seating back and things being offered to them for free from abroad’.
“We had to find ways of making sure that Rwandans understand that they have to be there for themselves. That goes for other Africans I’m sure. We have to do our part. Even if we get the assistance we use it to make sure that we strengthen ourselves& then build on that,” he said.
Kagame explained that Rwandans had to create a vision of how to move forward to achieve prosperity.
“It starts with ourselves. We said: Rwandans, it starts with us. How much have we done, how much have we invested in ourselves for skills, for knowledge and how much time do we take to do things that we know we must do and not wait for anybody else to come and do it,” he noted
Kagame said what follows if you invested in skills and in infrastructure, is doing business, entrepreneurship, people’s creativity, and innovation that it would not happen unless and until you invest in a conducive good governance environment.
“That is how we tried to do it, and we were under pressure because of where we are coming from & we had to convince ourselves that we can do it and that there no other alternative. We started doing our best. That is how we have made good progress,” he shared.
The two-day forum marks the end of the annual Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, which this year mentored, trained and seeded over 3,000 young Africans, selected from over 200,000 applicants.
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