‘Leadership is the key to practically everything’ say African thought-leaders
The climate crisis and associated challenges, such as poverty, can only be addressed with leadership that is focused on creating a pathway to a better future for the world, said Professor Yemi Osinbajo, former Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, speaking at Saïd Business School on 23 January 2025.
He called in particular for statesmanship: ‘leadership that thinks for us all, not just for a region or country’.
The world will not achieve net zero if Africa follows the route to prosperity of established developed nations, he said: Africa needs to be the first green industrialised society. This will present challenges to Africa’s leadership, who must achieve consensus and speak with one voice for the continent, and will entail some discomfort for the global North as, for example, steel production is moved from Europe to Africa.
Professor Osinbajo was opening an extended Distinguished Speaker Seminar to celebrate the 60th birthday of Arunma Oteh, the global finance and development trailblazer and an Executive in Residence at Saïd Business School. A range of global thought-leaders gathered in Oxford to discuss the question of how we can build a better world, and to celebrate the publication of Arunma’s new book, All Hands on Deck: Unleash Prosperity Through World-Class Capital Markets.
A series of panel discussions elaborated on the themes introduced by Professor Osinbajo and by Arunma in her book. These included:
The value of female leadership, and the importance of financial education for women. ‘Women hold up half the earth but routinely draw the short straw’
The need for the entrepreneurial talent in Africa to be developed through nurturing ecosystems and the smart deployment of capital, reducing ad hoc decision-making and prioritising long-term strategic planning, as well as moving from being goal-driven to being action-driven.
The imperative to change mindsets and eliminate the ‘failure bias’ in Africa whereby people only see failure because the people who are doing well are not asking for help. Speakers also disagreed with the common assumption that solutions would come from the global North: ‘If they were so good, they’d already be working’.
The necessity of demystifying capital markets, including creating more instruments suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises, and attracting and educating young people.
,Watch a video of the event here.