BY HUMPHREY KARIUKI
By starting an enterprise and employing local people I have been able to put something back into the communities I have been a part of all my life.
Right across the continent, local businesses have a central role to play in improving the lives of Africans. I have believed in that throughout my career.
This experience has taught me that more of our continent’s entrepreneurs must empower Africans through active participation in the continent’s economies.
That way we can create high value and high growth. But above all we can create jobs.
We have a chronic problem in Africa with youth unemployment leading to crime and violence. But by empowering local entrepreneurs and their communities we can change this.
The young people in our countries are talented, ambitious, hard-working. Many wish to start their own business and my lesson to them is that entrepreneurship is a mindset. It is about identifying a need or gap in the market and addressing it through value creation.
That is why I founded Janus Continental Group, a group focused on removing barriers to growth and development in Africa.
Our approach to investing in critical infrastructure such as electricity generation ensures that JCG is delivering local, reliable, and affordable power to millions.
Without reliable power, everybody suffers: homes without light, schools without computers, limited business activity and a negative impact on the provision of medical services.
Africa is a blessed and beautiful continent. Its people are amazing and I am proud to work with so many of them.
But we must all now do more to make sure the next generation of entrepreneurs can, like I did, start their own businesses and invest in opportunities that drive us all forward.
I call on governments and business leaders to work together to give Africa a better future.
