Dear Stakeholders,

Happy New Year!!!

With the dawn of 2009, this year promises to be filled with exciting new developments as many have come to embrace the end of poverty in Africa in this generation.  While hopes for reaching this goal are extraordinarily high, what can actually be accomplished must be tempered with the need for sustainable solutions. 

Africa is in dire need of food, energy security, hospitals, schools, roads, potable water, medicines, jobs and other basic societal necessities that improve the standard of living across the continent.   With the discovery of oil in Uganda and Ghana, there is optimism that the influx of new revenues will help fund social programs and combat poverty.  However, not even the rising food prices that traditionally boost agriculturally-based economies have been successful in generating income, as the biggest challenges still remain in transportation and overcoming trade barriers.   Perhaps the exception is South Africa, which is known for its more developed non-farm sector that includes mining, manufacturing and robust public and consumer spending.  Nevertheless, slower global markets are expected to make an impact.

Perhaps now is the time to look at diverse entrepreneurial strategies as a form of wealth transfer to the African nations as a “tried and true” way to economically prosper a land and move a nation from poverty into a sustainable and viable contributor in the global community.
 
Therefore, the focus of this blog site is to discuss and advance creative sustainable entrepreneurial solutions that can economically empower Africa.  We will start with devoting the 1st quarter of 2009 to addressing what it means to be an economic superpower and if such a goal is realistic for Africa.  In addition, we plan to search out, discover and identify creative ways that Africa can achieve this status in five to seven years.   While this timeline might appear aggressive, we believe the collective intellectual wealth that resides on the African continent will produce the goals and strategies necessary to make this a reality.  We will also take a look at how current trade and economic policies like TRIPS, DOHA and even the Millennium Development Goals impact entrepreneurial activities on the African continent.  Lastly, time will be spent reviewing unique resources that fuel prosperous business activities.
So, let’s begin…

Yours Truly,