The 2015 Innovention Series

I felt this positive forward shove when I listened to the speakers at this event. The theme of this year's Innovention series was identifying the 'next big thing in Africa' which you will find out asap.

One of the speakers, Prof. Pius Adeyemi of Carlton Uni. Canada did in his lecture titled, ‘Iyalaya Anybody’ (no he didn’t) summarized the visions of continents and other regions in the world e.g China’s Vision 2050 and Europe’s 2060 Agenda in comparison with the African Union 2063 and revealed that Africa’s own agenda is the most ambitious agenda setting document. 

He explained that most of these territories similarly agree that innovation, entrepreneurship, knowledge, invention and research are driving forces for future prosperity due to the shift from unsustainable resources like crude oil to human capital like ideas and intellectual property. Countries like UAE made this shift while UK and the US have been living on tourism and intellectual capital for ages. 

Hold on, this does not mean that we are doomed in Nigeria or Africa. There is hope. Nigeria currently depends a lot on oil and baby steps are being taken towards tapping into more sustainable alternatives. The good news is, Africa has plenty of potential in harnessing these driving forces for its future.

 Why?

These driving forces (innovation, entrepreneuship etc) are youth-led forces and behaviours. Bottomline, the youth are Africa’s untapped potential. Yup, people like you and I. If you are reading this and you are not a youth, it doesn't matter. You probably will become a youth one day or you’ve got youth children/ grand-children that you can inspire.

The best part is, compared to other territories, Africa has got tons and tons of youths. This means the African youth needs to be driven for innovation and problem solving because ideas will solve complex problems.

The creative industries (music, film, design, media, fashion, art etc) are also in the centre of this development. The only sad part is why it has taken us too long to realise this. There’s this book called The creative economy: How people make money from ideas by John Howkins. 

Howkins advises on how to turn ideas into money. According to him, US and Britain export more intellectual property than cars! This book was written back in 2001 and it seems that we are just realizing this potential in African. We have not even fully realized it- so spread the word. Tell that youth you know to keep going, stay inspired and persist at churning out ideas. Ideas could save lives, inspire more people, resolve conflicts or feed a nation.

A major challenge we have as discussed by Prof. Adeyemi is that Africans fail to tell their own story. As a result, we have many ideas that stay shelled and unnoticed. So I would say to you that you tell your story especially when its an exceptional one. I will be blogging about ideas that inspire and solve problems so feel free to share your ideas with me.

I also love comments, questions and constructive criticisms so put them in the comment box. 

I will be blogging again soon. xxx