IE Africa Day

The IE Africa Club at IE Business School and IE University (Madrid, Spain) is a student-led community of Africans and non-Africans that aim to generate a greater awareness of the African continent, its rich culture and the diverse business and career opportunities across Africa.

The 2015 IE Africa Day allows current students to network with African professionals and those with business experience on the continent and to learn about business and career opportunities from the speakers and other attendees. This year, IE Africa Day will showcase the latest developments and share how people can succeed in business in Africa. An accomplished set of thought leaders from across Africa and Europe will be coming to speak and to share their insights and inspiring stories. The speakers represent key industries such as agriculture, information technology, multimedia, financial services, tourism, and education, among others.  Here is a list of our diverse and exciting speakers.

Nuradin Osman - Managing Director, Middle East & Africa, AGCO Corporation

Rafael Gomez-Jordana Moya - Director African Unit, Santander Bank

Ambassador Smuts Ngonyama - Head of Mission, South African Embassy (Madrid, Spain)

Grace Obado - Director, Africa 2.0 Spain; Director of International Affairs, Hidrolution (Kenya)

Jonathan Tawiah - Founder & CEO, Ostec Limited (Ghana)

Isaac Oboth - Founder & CEO, Media256 (Uganda)

Luis Folhadela - Private Equity Professional (Former Director, KPMG Angola; Former, Business Development Director, BFA Angola)

Stuart Minnaar - Founder & CEO, Studentology & Yappo (South Africa)

Gonzalo Garland - VP of External Relations, IE Business School

Isaac Kwaku Fokuo Jr. - CEO, African Leadership Network; Founder, Sino-Africa Centre for Excellence; Principal, Botho Limited

Join us for an insightful afternoon addressing the dynamic culture and growing opportunities that exist in Africa!  The event will begin promptly at 16:00PM in the afternoon, and registration will start at 15:30PM.

Check out IE Africa Day's official website, and Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter (@IEAfricaClub) for more updates!  Tickets will be sold in Launch Pad from Wed 4th to Fri 6th March from 10:00am to 17:00pm.  

General Admission:  15 EUR

After the opening keynote session, there will be three panel discussions on the following topics:

Entrepreneurship – How to start and grow fluid and flexible businesses in Africa

In this panel, African business owners and professionals will share experiences from contexts across the continent. The conversation will discuss country/region-specific considerations ranging from sourcing/supply chain management and logistics through product, market assessment, distribution, and advertising. Audience members should have a good sense of

• How to navigate the unique cultural, economic, and political forces surrounding scaling a business in Africa.
• How do you build & scale a business in Africa whose profitability is tied to the growth of the surrounding community?
• What to be thinking about when looking to enter African markets and be able to anticipate research required for contextualizing aspects of the business from initial customer contact through sourcing.
• How conference attendees can build businesses that will stand the test of time.

Innovation – Creativity and flexibility are the key to providing innovative solutions to some of Africa’s challenges

In this panel, African business owners and professionals will share examples of innovative solutions they have either seen or developed to solve challenges and maximize opportunities across the continent. Innovative solutions can be an any area including:

• Agriculture: Successful technology adoption within the African Agriculture sector requires stakeholders across the value chain to utilize solutions that are both cost-effective and efficient. This panel will explore new technologies that seek to sustainably enhance crop yields and labor productivity, and discuss the investment opportunity in the AgriTech space for private and public sector investors as well as commercial farmers.
• Education: Discussion on how mobile or Internet based technologies are being used to increase access to education for children and adults.
• Energy: How renewable energy can help provide access to electricity through off-grid solutions.
• Information and Communication Technologies.

Culture & Tourism – Maximising one of Africa’s greatest natural resources for sustainable development

In this panel, African business owners, professionals and embassy representatives will share examples of how they are boosting their tourism sectors as part of ensuring inclusive sustainable economic development. Audience members should have a good sense of:

• The importance of tourism as a driver of sustainable economic development.
• Business opportunities for entrepreneurs from and outside of the continent to help increase greater regional collaboration, improving the positioning of Africa as a top tourist destination and raising the quality of service provided.
• The role of technology in ensuring more inclusive access to the tourism sector for Africans.