The Sunday News
Dumisani Sibanda Sunday News Correspondent
From May 11-13 Rwanda — which is considered by some as an African tiger considering its fast pace of development — hosted the World Economic Forum on Africa. One of the panelists in this high level conference in the continent was a 22-year-old woman who is a mining entrepreneur and is studying law, Ms Nicola Grace Hove, who is a WEF Global Shaper from Bulawayo. She was one of the few young Africans who was chosen to participate at the meeting whose theme was: “Connecting Africa’s Resources Through Digital Transformation”. Last week, Sunday News Correspondent, Dumisani Sibanda (DS) had an interview with this rising star, Nicola Hove (NH) who has just returned from the trip to Rwanda on her participation in the conference. Below are excerpts from the interview:
DS: Thank you for the opportunity to have a conversation with you. But just how were you chosen to take part in the conference which was held in the Rwandan capital, Kigali?
NH: I am a World Economic Forum Global Shaper which is a network of young people aged between 20 and 30 and I belong to the Bulawayo hub. I applied in that capacity and was the only one chosen from the Bulawayo hub. I was chosen among the thousands of other Africans to take part in the conference.
DS: Professionally, what do you do?
NH: I am a law student and the chief executive officer of G26 Investment Group, which is a mining concern, I co-founded and is mainly into gold mining.
DS: What was your role at the conference?
NH: I was one of the panelists in the session titled : “The Future is in Your Hands, Youth and Africa Rising”. It was such an experience as other panelists included luminaries such as Donald Kaberuka.
DS: Kaberuka, the former head of the African Development Bank?
NH: That’s him, he is now at Havard University. Other panelists were Fred Swaniker of Africa Leadership Group and Victor Ocheng. I was selected to speak on Youth and Africa Rising. I was tapping on my experience from being a young female entrepreneur in mining in an economy faced with major challenges which have to be overcome in terms of attracting investment. There was obviously an interest how we were managing in an economy like ours.
DS: What was your message to the youths on that score?
NH: True, there is a problem with attracting investment and this is a challenge for entrepreneurs. But we have the potential to go beyond that. But my message to fellow youths is that we should take ownership of our vast resources especially the mineral resources because if we don’t who will. We also need to be found on the table as young people having serious conversation with policy makers and other decision makers on how we can create wealth as youths and in the process create jobs.
DS: In that sense participating at the forum was helpful to you as you were sort of having that serious conversation you are referring to ?
NH: It was an honour to participate at the Forum and seeing young entrepreneurs discuss with such figures.
DS: But as we will be celebrate Africa Day, in a few days, do you see a bright future for the continent or its just gloom and doom?
NH: We have a bright future as a continent. But we need to level the ground for engagement on investment. As we speak there are a few economies that are really poised for growth like South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. Rwanda is also coming up. We need to strengthen our economic blocs in Africa so that there is serious economic integration.
DS: Economic blocs like Sadc?
NH: We are talking Sadc, Ecowas and so on. We need to even open up our borders to facilitate trade. I see countries like Kenya have removed visas. But as I was saying countries like Zimbabwe and others can take a cue from Rwanda where there is a lot of development going on. They are putting in place public infrastructure which is an enabler for economic growth and this is happening in Rwanda just 22 years after the genocide . In reality, the wounds are still fresh but they are managing to steer the country in the correct development path. We are capable of doing these things and are ripe for such development opportunities.
DS: What do we need to do concretely to prosper?
NH: We need to come together and push the real agenda that is of addressing bread and butter issues, creating jobs should be the priority. There are arguments on the level of unemployment, that is the figures, but the truth is that there is high unemployment and we should focus on creating wealth and in the process create jobs. For young people, we should remember we form the majority. We should take ownership of the resources. We should work together to create employment opportunities.
Make your contribution as a young person whether you are investing intellectually or capital.
DS: Your last word on youths and the improvement of the economy and perhaps to young women in Bulawayo like your self.
NH: We cannot run away from the fact that this is a skills driven economy and we should take advantage of that.
To compete globally, we need to be innovative. We need to be creative and harness the improvements in technology happening. We have to come up with different ideas and be able to create a niche in the market instead of just going into an area that is already flooded or there is overtrading.
DS: Someone was saying to me in Zimbabwe, if you think of a small business you think about going into public transport, the kombis, resulting in overtrading and even taxi wars. Is that what you are referring to?
NH: Yes, I mean everyone wants to have a flea market stand or a shop repairing cell-phones. Let’s be innovative. To the young women, let us be assertive and be involved in these projects. I have ventured into mining which has been a male dominated area. As young women, we need to work hard and the Government should assist us, in fact as all young people with business ideas to pursue.
DS: Thank you very much for sharing your experiences from the World Economic Forum for Africa that was held in the Rwandan capital, Kigali and giving us your insights into how Africa can develop as it runs away from poverty plaguing it.
NH: Thank you (shaking hands).
