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Elumelu, others collaborate to ‘spark’ businesses in Africa

By Editor
28 July 2015   |   11:59 pm
A group of organisations have come together to answer President Barack Obama’s call at the global entrepreneurship summit on Monday in Nairobi, Kenya, to advance economic growth around the world.
Co-founder of the Global Spark Coalition, Jonathan Ortmans (left); President, United States of America, Barack Obama; Chief Executive Officer of Global Entreprenureship Network, Tony Elumelu; and the Chairman, Africa Growth Initiative,  Sriram Bharatam, during the Global Entreprenureship summit in Nairobi, Kenya.

Co-founder of the Global Spark Coalition, Jonathan Ortmans (left); President, United States of America, Barack Obama; Chief Executive Officer of Global Entreprenureship Network, Tony Elumelu; and the Chairman, Africa Growth Initiative, Sriram Bharatam, during the Global Entreprenureship summit in Nairobi, Kenya.

A group of organisations have come together to answer President Barack Obama’s call at the global entrepreneurship summit on Monday in Nairobi, Kenya, to advance economic growth around the world.

Representatives of the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN), Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) participated in a formal signing ceremony at the summit, committing to lead the Spark Global Entrepreneurship initiative.

Spark is a coalition that is seeking to mobilise like-minded organizations, companies and investors that collectively generate more than $1 billion in private investment for emerging entrepreneurs by the end of 2017.

“The world is full of nascent entrepreneurs with brilliant ideas—but they need stronger ecosystems to help them unleash those ideas and grow them into game-changing startups.

“Spark increases coordination and collaboration among startup support programs and amplifies their efforts,” said President of Global Entrepreneurship Network, and one of three Spark coalition co-chairs, Jonathan Ortmans.

The first wave of companies that have stepped forward include Citi, EY, GE, Google and IBM.

Two African companies, Rendeavour, the continent’s largest urban land developer and SkyPower, the largest provider of utility-scale solar power projects in the world, have also joined.

“African entrepreneurship has been the missing link in Africa’s development. The actions of just one entrepreneur sends ripples across a community and entrepreneurship lifts people permanently out of poverty and creates social wealth.

“We all know entrepreneurship, anywhere in the world, is not easy nor is success guaranteed. All stakeholders – the private sector, governments, NGOs and donors – must make a commitment to use their respective powers to address the hurdles facing African entrepreneurs. That is what Spark is all about,” said founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Spark taps into the growing involvement of government programmes in helping entrepreneurs start and scale new firms.

U.S. Vice President, Joseph Biden announced the Spark initiative at the 2014 global entrepreneurship summit in Morocco and outlined the commitments of some of the most active and effective U.S. government programmes, such as the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship, Young African Leaders Initiative, African Women’s Entrepreneurship Programme, among others.

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