The Chairman, Heirs Holdings, Mr. Tony Elumelu, has called on Africans to consider a new approach to the continent's development – one that involves the private sector and is capable of kick-starting the economic ecosystem that underpins all sustainable development.
Speaking at the African Development Bank's Annual Board of Governors' meeting in Morocco, Elumelu said the new approach called: 'Africapitalism', was an economic philosophy, which asserted that the private sector could solve Africa's most pressing challenges through long-term investments that would create economic prosperity and social wealth.
He urged the private sector to take on the responsibility of development, using his personal experience at the United Bank for Africa Plc.
In a call to action for the continent's entrepreneurs and business leaders who have not yet embraced Africapitalism, Elumelu pleaded with them to start investing in strategic sectors that would drive development.
He said, "We need to do away with short-term thinking. We should be investing in over time horizons measured in decades, rather than fiscal quarters. We must stop the practice of extracting wealth without reinvesting for growth.
"We should be strategically building domestic industries and manufacturing to support our national economies, and growing intra-African trade."
He called on the philanthropic and charitable communities of Africa, development banks and private investors to embrace the philosophy of Africapitalism and recognise that the private sector's role in driving economic prosperity was the solution for development.
"Economic prosperity is the most valuable and lasting gift we can give to a continent with our challenges. We need to support solutions that are catalytic and sustainable. That should be the ultimate goal of our development mission."
