African Growth Topic at Yale Trade and Investment Seminar
On Saturday Clem and I attended the “Africa Trade and Investment Seminar” presented by the Yale Africa Business Club. Second-year MBA students at the Yale School of Management were the organizers.
Two speakers talked about the new “African Continental Free Trade Zone” and its impact “on the flow of private equity funds and venture capital investments into and within the continent.” Both were optimistic about African growth.
Speaker Ngozi Bell
The African Continental Free Trade Zone or ACFTZ was new to me. It was formed over the last six years with legal documents signed in March this year in Rwanda. The goal is free trade between all 55 countries in the African continent.
Ngozi Bell and Optimism for Africa
Ngozi Bell was one of the speakers. She is enthusiastic about Africa’s potential and gave excellent explanations for her optimism.
You can see her at the TedX in Lehigh, Pennsylvania. Some of her comments at Yale were similar.
Several times she directed her comments at the students in the room: “Go Home,” she said. Don’t expect change to happen by itself. Instead they need to go home and help create the change.
She was especially adamant about getting involved in the political process, and said she is doing that herself, though from a distance.
“Contribute to a campaign,” she said, “so you are really invested. Research the candidates, decide who you can support, and then do it!”
I loved her phrase, “Get into the heart of the process.”
Chinedu Enekwe and Affiniti
Chinedu Enekwe, Speaker at Yale Seminar
The other speaker was Chinedu Enekwe. My Nigerian readers will recognize immediately that both speakers are Igbo. Probably not a coincidence, given that the organizer I spoke to first was also Igbo.
But I was sorry there wasn’t an East African, or even South African. I wonder if they considered the make-up of the students at SOM in first and second year classes now. Perhaps the majority are Nigerian. Or perhaps these were the speakers who were willing to come!
Chinedu grew up in the US with his Nigerian parents. He has moved to Nigeria twice for a period to invest in start-up companies. He made 35+ investments, he said, and found his greatest thrill in watching entrepreneurs become successful.
Now he is based in Washington DC. His focus is on encouraging African-Americans and Africans in the Diaspora to become investors in early stage African companies.
I liked a comment from him I found online: “My wish is that money comes out from behind the curtain and takes a central seat at the table.”
His company Affiniti invites people to become “members,” as investors or financial advisors. He has built a large network but it isn’t clear from his website how directly the network members are involved with his business.
I was surprised to find Franklin Amoo in the list. We knew him when he was at Mizuho Securities USA. He worked with Clem on the Koko Free Trade Zone project for a year or two and came to a party at our house.
We were clearly a couple of generations older than everyone else there! When I said to one of the Yale MBA students, “I’m an alum from the class of 1988,” he said, “Wow. I wasn’t even born then!”
Dressing in Lagos
The New York Times Style section had an entertaining article about unusual modes of dressing in Lagos. The piece began by describing Charley Boy, a musician whom I had met in London at the last Igbo Conference I attended. (I spelled his name Charly Boy then.)
Charly Boy and me at Legacies of Biafra Conference
He has always wanted to draw attention to himself by dressing flamboyantly. When he returned to Nigeria after studying in the US, his style caused the military governments to censure him and his music.
“Since then, the government has returned to a democracy, but most of Nigeria remains politically, socially and religiously conservative,” the article says. “Men and women tend to dress accordingly, in loosefitting garments made from vivid traditional textiles (brocade, adire, ankara) and Western-style business professional attire.”
Women’s hair styles have changed dramatically since I first went to Nigeria in 1962. Then girls and women tended to have their tied with black thread in many small braids. Today we hardly see this traditional style.
According to the writer of the article, today men and women “wear their hair in gender-conventional fashions: long for women, short for men.” Like black women in the US, Nigerian women wear extensions and weaves. Wigs were very popular a couple of years ago, but all of these fit gender styles.”
Nigerian women dress well. “Much of their clothing is stylish, but it is also meant to attract little attention.”
But not the people who are profiled in the article. Be prepared for surprises as you look through the pictures and read about them!
One of those is Mr. Oke-Lawal who was shy about his interest in unusual clothing when young. He began drawing and finally began dressing in eye-catching styles.
Now he is the creative director of Orange Culture. “In 2014, his efforts were recognized: He was a finalist for the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy Prize, a prestigious award for young designers.”
“These days, his clients include Naomi Campbell, Lupita Nyong’o and Chimamanda Adichie. His clothes are in stores in global fashion capitals and . . . he has shown in fashion weeks” around the world.
I wonder what I’ll see on the streets of Lagos in three weeks!
