Why philanthropic entrepreneurial investor Jean-Claude Bastos believes a boot-strap mentality holds the important thing to socio-economic empowerment for Africa
There’s an outdated African proverb that claims: “Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.” For tech-savvy investor and philanthropist Jean-Claude Bastos, that adage is especially apropos.
Jean-Claude Bastos, a twin citizen of Switzerland and Angola, has lengthy devoted himself to championing initiatives that promote socio-economic development conceived and fueled by an rising pool of native African analysis and growth pioneers. “There is an inherent innovation spirit that is stealthily fueling its way across the continent, and it’s not just a fad, it’s very real indeed,” he shared in a 2017 interview with NewAfrican.
“Despite the fact that we’re a continent made up of 54 countries, the one thing that is uniting Africans is this spirit. The continent is seeing a sharp rise in home-grown innovative solutions across the agriculture, healthcare, environment, transportation, and technology spectrum. African innovation enablers and influencers are breaking down barriers and encouraging regional collaborations to steer African innovation forward through infrastructure development, technology transfer, and critical know-how. I believe that it’s only a matter of time before the global investment community realizes and descends upon the potential of innovation from Africa.”
How a Boot-Strap Mentality Empowers Africa’s Youth
The motto, “For Africa, By Africa,” was the cornerstone of the The African Innovation Basis, a charitable group Jean-Claude Bastos based in 2009 to assist budding expertise within the fields of agriculture, well being, sustainability, and communications know-how attain their full potential. “My passion for innovation and my belief that Africa’s future lies in its ability to innovate according to its socio-economic needs led to the founding of the African Innovation Foundation,” Bastos advised Forbes. “Our aim [was] to unleash Africa’s dormant potential and support sustainable projects that improve the lives and the future of people in Africa.”
Throughout each strata of African society, from academics to scientists, journalists to politicians, sociologists to artists, proud mother and father to shrewd traders, there are a number of events who’d argue that Africa’s best useful resource is its younger individuals. Whereas these advocates contend nurturing human capital is important to creating a sturdy future for the continent, the youth of Africa stay hamstrung by harbingers of the continent’s lower than welcoming previous. Shifting past a legacy of illness, hunger, habitat destruction, systemic poverty, misogyny, and political oppression isn’t any small endeavor.
“At the risk of making a generalization, may I say it: Africa’s young people are dissatisfied and frustrated. They are fed up — with the stigma of Africa, the pity the continent sometimes evokes, the perception of its lack of self-sufficiency and dependence on handouts from the outside world,” wrote Lise Birikundavyi in an essay for Jean-Claude Bastos’ 2015 curated assortment of suppose items, The Convergence of Nations: Why Africa’s Time is Now. “This negative image reflects only a fraction of what Africa is. Yet it impedes Africa from being as great as it once was and as wonderful as it could be.”
Birikundayvi, Managing Associate at BKR Capital, a agency that gives funding funding within the know-how house with a give attention to uplifting minority communities, can also be a member of ForbesBLK whose mission is “to champion a global community of Black entrepreneurs, professionals, leaders, and creators that are driving systematic change in business, culture and society.” The insights she gleaned from years of non-public interplay and hands-on expertise forging inroads into African commerce led her to succeed in conclusions that align intently with Jean-Claude Bastos’ personal.
“Africa is too often presented as a continent without hope, where nothing happens other than human and political disasters. The media tend to suggest that Africans are a single group of people — and that they are helpless,” Birikundayvi associated. “With time, I have discovered a diversity that is bigger and richer than that seen on the European continent. The continent has bright minds constantly fighting for the improvement of their respective countries with innovation, boldness, courage, and passion.”
“We are a continent of people who are coming of age in times when technology is moving at such an incredible rate and increased connectivity is changing how young Africans are learning, banking, shopping, and doing business,” Bastos defined.
Innovation is a Virus That Wants No Treatment
Whereas adversity continues to create struggling for an enormous swath of Africa’s inhabitants, there’s one so-called “virus” Jean-Claude Bastos want to see extra individuals succumb to that might probably treatment a myriad of the continent’s ills. Its title? “Innovation.”
Jean-Claude Bastos isn’t any stranger to transformative innovation and the gorgeous influence it will possibly have on marginalized communities. “I have personally seen what can happen when you build an innovation hub in the middle of a slum, like I’ve done in Angola.” Via his efforts, a derelict cleaning soap manufacturing unit was reborn as “a hybrid incubator, accelerator, makerspace, co-working space and cultural connector called Fábrica de Sabão.”
Bastos recollects that in its early days, native youth from the encompassing space had been intimidated by the brand new enterprise, however quickly sufficient their curiosity overcame their preliminary misgivings. “[They became] part of the organic transformation… literally before my eyes.”
Children obtained concerned within the prototyping of alarm methods and solar-powered cell charging gadgets. They realized find out how to function pc numerical management (CNC) machines and 3D printers to fabricate tiles and furnishings from recycled supplies. “This is what the ‘innovation virus’ is all about. I would like to see inclusive ecosystems like these evolve across every slum in Africa,” Bastos stated.
Significant Change Should Come From Inside
“…Many Africans have been sold the idea that they cannot be the protagonists of their own development. If any great project is to be implemented, it has to be arranged by foreigners… The majority of the young Africans I meet agree on one point: mentalities need to change. And that can only happen through inclusive growth,” Birikundayvi asserted.
“I feel innovation is one of the driving forces that Africa can use and should use to diversify their economies and create small and mid-sized enterprises to create the jobs which are very much needed in this continent,” Jean-Claude Bastos declared. “[Africa has] a very young population. You have to imagine all of these young people want to have jobs. Innovation is the key to creating those jobs and stimulating the economy.”
“To make this happen all Africans — and particularly young people — need to embrace the power of sometimes disruptive change,” Birikundayvi concluded. “They must make use of all the opportunities from new technology and new methods of doing business, as well as of fresh channels of investment from the private and public sectors, and adapt them to local context and needs. Young Africans, representing the majority of the population on the continent, are engaged and hungry for change — and they can lead the way to a better future.”
