Drawing on the past to chart the future: How sub-Saharan Africa can return to growth

This article is part of the World Economic Forum on Africa 2017.

After almost two decades of robust growth, there has been a sharp deceleration in economic activity in sub-Saharan Africa. Lower commodity prices,

but also mounting imbalances in some of the region’s largest economies, have taken average growth for the whole region down to about 1.5% in 2016. A slight increase to around 2.5% is expected this year – markedly lower than the 5-6% of earlier years.

Sub-Saharan Africa: Real GDP Growth, 2016. Image: IMF

The full picture is more complex: Since 2014, oil exporters, including Nigeria and Angola, have experienced substantial declines in growth leading to large revenue losses and balance-of-

The Best of 2016 – My Top 12 Articles That Got Your Attention

Looking at 2016 through the lens of my writing career, it was quite an impressive year indeed.
In May, my article on Mark Zuckerberg’s visit to Lagos (Nigeria) for the launch of his controversial free internet program – Free Basics – was published in The Huffington Post.
In June, following my article chronicling my journey in urban agribusiness, I was featured on live TV by CNN Money.
And in November, my article on starting an agribusiness in Africa was featured in the November issue of The Africa Perspective Magazine, a promising publication that’s doing a great job at changing the way the world sees Africa.
2016 also presented an explosive leap in the number of readers who follow my work. On LinkedIn, for example, my followers grew from less than 10,000 people in early 2016 to just over 195,000 by December.
I am humbled by the realization that there are thousands of people out there in the world who share my opinions and convictions about Africa and entrepreneurship, the two main subjects I focus on.
In this article, I have put together a collection of the top 12 articles that got the most attention from my readers and followers in 2016.
Here’s the countdown:

12) Is Africa Still Rising? Yes. Actually, We’re Just Getting Started!

Africa’s economy took quite a beating during 2016.

This 25-Year Old Found Success When He Started Helping Others Succeed

Scott Oldford

Success is the prime focus of so many people. I did a simple Amazon book search to see and there are 272,519 books about success. Success is often focused inwardly. In fact, the drive for success is a need to go from where you are now to where you want to be. Look at that sentence… it is all about you.
In my opinion, we put too much emphasis on success. In my journey of life and business, I have achieved great success and still asked “is this it?” In other words, I was not fulfilled. I ended up losing it all and making my comeback.

5 Keys to Entrepreneurial Success in 2017

If you are ready to experience entrepreneurial success in 2017, be prepared to work. There aren’t any $37 eBooks or $97/month programs that are going to magically eliminate or reduce the workload that is required to be successful.

The other day I overheard a business owner say, “Hopefully, luck will be on my side next year and business will take a turn for the better.” Sadly, that way of thinking isn’t going to help him one bit -- if I were to make a bet, I would let it ride on him failing again.
If you are banking on luck, you might as well hit the casino and let it all ride on red or black at the roulette wheel. Here are five very simple, yet seemingly overlooked key points you need to address if you want to experience a successful 2017.

1. Put past failures behind you.

There are far more failures than there are success stories when it comes to startups and new businesses. Most fail, and that’s just how it is. It’s very rare that you will find a successful entrepreneur that hit a home run at his or her first at bat.

WELCOME

Dangote, Putin, Trump, Merkel most powerful persons in the world-Forbes

Foremost Entrepreneur and President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, was at the weekend named along other world leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, American President-elect, Donald Trump and German Chancellor, Angela Merkel as the most powerful persons in the world.

These personalities were ranked along with 7o others as the most powerful people with Dangote ranked as the second most powerful in the African continent.

The Nigerian business mogul has constantly featured in the list since 2013 when he was listed as the only black African so rated by the popular Forbes Magazine in the list of 100 most powerful persons.

Listed as number 71 most powerful last year ahead of the American President-elect, Dangote, Africa’s richest man, moved up the ladder of influential people as he was named as the 68^th most powerful in the world weekend, coming only after the Egyptian President, Abdel el-Sisi, who was adjudged the most powerful in Africa and 44th in the world.

The famed American business magazine, Forbes in the latest edition of its 74 World Most Powerful People ranking list released at the weekend showed that the 64 year old Russian President, Vladimir Putin is the most powerful in the world, ahead of Mr. Donald Trump who is second on the list.

While the German Chancellor Angela Merkel is ranked the third most powerful person in the World, out-going American President, Barack Obama placed 48^th on the list.

Meet JR Kanu; Builder Of African Businesses, And Founder Of Reach, A Social Financial Management App

In more ways than one, I can relate to JR’s journey. JR Kanu, that is. 9 years ago, between November 2007 and September 2009, he worked as a journalist at Black Enterprise and Esquire Magazine. 6 years ago? He was a Technical Advisor for the United Nations Millennium Villages Project. 4? He helped launch a cookstove manufacturing facility in Haiti (presumably part of the UN’s after-earthquake resuscitation efforts).
After that, he dabbled in investment, then managed Operations at Zappos (an online fashion store owned by Amazon), after which he found himself teaching human-centred design as a Design Thinking Coach at Stanford University. Fast forward a few months, and he’d picked up an interest in e-commerce and joined Konga in November 2014 as Vice President, Business Development. While there, he led the 32-strong team that built out KongaPay and made it a standalone product. Oh. JR founded The Design Institute, Lagos, he’s got a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Calvin College, an MA in Journalism from NYU, and a Stanford MBA. Whew.