THE 18th ANNUAL AFRICAN BUSINESS CONFERENCE – HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL

From the Harvard Business School, the Africa Business Club is an initiative dedicated to increasing the awareness of business opportunities on the African continent through professional, educational and social activities. Their mission is to expose the HBS community to the unique and vast business opportunities that Africa presents.

The goal being to educate Harvard’s community about Africa; by creating a dialogue about how this generation can navigate Africa’s challenges to generate far-reaching impact on the entire continent. For the last 18 years, the club has run an annual conference to discuss Africa’s most challenging issues in business to the members of the Harvard community and the larger young professional African network.

The African Business Conference provides a forum for career opportunities for students interested in Africa, as well as individuals or graduates seeking the credentials of the Harvard Business School.

The Conference raises awareness about investments and other business opportunities on the African continent with the aim of creating more ventures and deals in Africa.

This 18th annual business conference, which was held in Boston, MA on February 26th to February 28, 2016; a the two-days event witnessed a number of great minds from all over the world. With the theme: “Unite. Innovate. Disrupt: Home-grown models for Africa’s prosperity”, the event focused on Entrepreneurship, Healthcare, Start-ups, Airline Industry, investing in Africa and much more.

Serving as a starting point for discussion on the various issues and progressions, its atmosphere had an inspiring effect for the young professionals thriving to improve their African continent and the world as a whole. With Amazing keynotes from his Excellency, Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda; Clayton Christensen, Kim B. Clark professor of business administration at the Harvard Busines School; Makhtar Diop, Vice President for Africa at the world Bank. Also, Ashish J. Thakkar, executive Chairman of Mara Sokoni and founder of Mara Group and Mara Foundation; Khanyi Dhlomo, founder and CEO of Ndalo Media; Charles Ifedi, CEO Verve International: all of whom delivered amazing speeches.

 

“The person who knows how will always have a job. But the person who knows why will always be his boss”. – Charles Ifedi

 

As the largest student- run Africa business conference globally, the conference brought together diverse people such as working professionals, students, Africans on the continent and those outside. With panel discussions including sessions on finance, sports, consumerism, natural resources, etc. Thought-provoking conversations were stimulated by the series of leaders lined on each topic. Offering tremendous opportunities for attendees to engage meaningfully with each other and with the conference speakers to foster partnerships that will lead to the deployment of more innovative solutions in Africa.

To close out the 2016 ABC conference, a banquet and after-party was held on Saturday, February 27th 2016 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Centre (BCEC), Located on Boston’s historic waterfront; delivering an outstanding view of Boston’s expanding waterfront. The party had music Artists such as Nigeria’s Inyanya, Ghana’s Sarkodie and DJ Deemaks; with other great entertainers and cultural acts on the bill plus inspirational speeches; the banquet which featured a custom menu with an African touch was indeed a delightful way to end proceedings!