Beyond the rhetoric of ‘Africa Rising’ and being ‘a continent on the move’ is the realization that it is only through actions that words take meaning and we all have a role to play. In the words of a renowned Futurist, Alvin Toffler, it is unfortunate that ‘the secret message communicated to most young people today by the society around them is that they are not needed, that the society will run itself quite nicely until they — at some distant point in the future — will take over the reigns. Yet the fact is that the society is not running itself nicely… because the rest of us need all the energy, brains, imagination and talent that young people can bring to bear down on our difficulties. For society to attempt to solve its desperate problems without the full participation of even very young people is imbecile’.

In the case of Africa, it is unfortunate to note that this phenomenon is coupled with various brain-drain schemes in forms of mass-scholarships and conditional migration opportunities established by Western and recently Asian countries to sap the continent of its best brains. What is worse is the continuous increase of the continent’s youth in Diaspora who have lost faith in their continent and with no intention of seeing to the development of their home country.

25 years old Bamidele Seun Owoola is an exception to this notion. Born and raised in London United Kingdom to Nigerian immigrant parents in search of greener pastures, Bamidele has a knack for entrepreneurship that has led her from selling chicken and chips in High school, organising club/entertainment events at University, selling cars – to being a DJ in college before the aftermath of a short trip to Ghana in 2011 set her on a life time mission of seeing the continent live up to its potential. Bamidele is on a mission to serve as a catalyst for positive development in Africa, particularly for the industrialization of the Agricultural sector in Africa through the Agrique Africa Investment Summit.

Bamidele is the Founder of ‘Welcome2Africa’– a London based organization with offices in Ghana and affiliates across Africa to set out to facilitate foreign and domestic investment into the Africa, with a current focus on Agriculture. Their forte is to provide linkages by showcasing the vast investment opportunities the African agricultural sector offers. I met Bamidele at the 2015 Oxford/Africa Conference that brought together leading academics, African Leaders, Policy Analyst, Development Practitioners, Entrepreneurs and students who share a common vision of a greater Africa. At the time, haven spent almost a year in the United Kingdom for an International development post-graduate program focusing on poverty and Inequality, it was unfortunate to come across countless young Africans whose disposition to their home countries and the continent was at best pessimistic and cynical; ‘Welcome2Africa’ was a breath of fresh air.

It has being  many months since the organization held its first investment summit in Ghana with another one scheduled to take place this month in London, United Kingdom. I reached out to Bamidele to share her growth process, experiences and what more we should expect.

On how she continues to be inspired by her  African roots

‘Growing-up, I had a skewed perception about Nigeria and Africa which was based on the main stream narrative about the content as well as the views indirect and direct expressed by my parent. However, this did not deter my inquisitiveness about the continent. For as long as I could remember I had always wanted to take a trip in to Africa. Initially, my inquisitiveness could be linked to an identity issue, which is very common amongst the recent generation of African immigrant who were born and grew up in the United Kingdom, Europe or the United State of America. However, I have moved pass that stage because I released that the fixation was on issues of the past which could be quite depressing rather than on how to move the African continent forward. It wasn’t until 2011 I decided to embark on a trip and my decision to visit the continent was somewhat scary to my parent at the time, they couldn’t understand why I felt the need to go. In fact one of the reasons I visited Ghana first was because my mother felt it would be better for me to travel to Nigeria with her instead of my own. And as we had family in Ghana it would be a better alternative.

On getting to Ghana, I fell in love, I thought this was where am
supposed to be, Africa!. Secondly, I realized that there was a lot of work to be done. This was what sparked my interest in Africa and the ideas behind ‘Welcome2Africa’

Focus on Agriculture

‘My initial focus was on tourism, as I thought it imperative to showcase the many parts of the continent. I went on the shoot a documentary. Despite my many efforts nothing much was yielding from showcasing the documentary, which left me at a place where I had to reevaluate how I fit in and how best to add value to the continent. My longest stay in the continent was the 9 months I spent in Ghana followed by the visit to Nigeria and other countries across Africa. As I studied the different sectors, I notice there were a lot of food being imported, I thought it was ironical that a continent with so much agricultural potentials could not relied heavily on food being imported in. I also met with farmers in Ghana while shooting the documentary which provided first hand insight into the challenges they were facing. I realized that Agriculture was somewhat neglected. This insight was the seed of my focus in agriculture. On returning back to England with a mind pondering on how best to add value, I released there were a lot of investment companies in London looking for the
next investment opportunity and there seemed to be no platform making the pitch for investment in the African Agricultural sector as well as providing detailed break-down of the sector’.

How does ‘Welcome2Africa’ fit into the Agricultural sector?

‘Through the Agrique Africa Investment Summit we are facilitating linkages between foreign investment companies and Agric-businesses in Africa’ ‘We are catalyzing a positive interest into Agriculture, and creating a knowledge platform that simultaneously facilitates business relationships/partnerships.  What we found to be obtainable in most of the other investment forums and conference was a situation where a  an economist of some sort from the west or  cabinet Minister froms an African country of interest is invited to speak with investor and most times they end up giving a general over-view of their agricultural sector. These leaves the investors and those with business interest at a loose as they are unable narrow-down the specific investment opportunity and how to go about it. This is what stands the Agrique Africa Investment summit out as we ensure that specific investment opportunities around the value-adding production chain of the agricultural sector are made evident to investors. We acknowledge that there are a lot of other factors that need to be addressed like policy issues and mechanization of sector in a broader context, however, our focus right now are working with existing agric-business requiring additional finance to take-off on a larger scale. I should also mention that, I initially set out to work with the small holders but I realized it was a more complex issue to take on. Secondly, most of the medium and large scale agric-businesses work with the small holders. Asides that, we also took it a step further by including conditionality clause to the investment that encouraged the larger agric-businesses we are working with to work with small holders in their sector’

About the First Agrique Africa Investment Summit, Successes and Challenges?

‘The first Agrique-Africa Investment summit held on the 17 th and 18 th of November 2015 in Ghana. We had in attendance agric-businesses from African countries, In terms of the significant achievement of the first summit I would say the summit gave our Organization ‘Welcome2Africa’ credibility and also proved the value of the Agrique Africa Investment Summit. The presence of investors from around the world who are interested in the African Agriculture sector shows that indeed there is a market that requires the intended outcome of the summit. On a personal note, it was quite an experience for me because it was the first time I was organizing an international conference of that magnitude. So it means I have learnt a lot and made important contacts to build on and learnt a whole lot in short space of time.  It also made us realize the need to further narrow down our focus on specific agricultural activities. In fact, another lesson from the first summit in Ghana is the need for us to refine the agenda and target audience, areas thereby making the delegates more relevant to each other and increase the possibility of partnership’

About the Second Agric-Afrique Summit

‘The second Agrique Africa summit will be taking place on 23 rd June, 2016 in London. Right now, Agriculture is seen as a risky sector and typically it was also considered a development issue. This has resulted in lopsided global view of the investment opportunities in the African Agricultural sector. Investors have not prioritized Agric-businesses in Africa because it has been historically seen as primarily a development agenda. So the goal of the second summit in that sense is to capitalize on the interest of Agric-business investors in the UK and beyond and showcase the Agricultural sector in Africa as an investable sector. Our goal is to increase the pool of investors willing to invest in agric-business in Africa. We have an array investors scheduled to speak at the summit that have significantly profited from investing in agric-businesses in Africa. We will also be providing opportunities for Agric-businesses to make presentations and we will be encouraging partnerships. Our emphasis will be on profit and social impact because there is a whole value chain affected by investing in Agric-businesses’

Experience of Gender Discrimination and Ageism.

‘Initially I would say I was just this young girl with bold dreams for the African continent. The fact remains that as a young girl of African descent you could be subject to discrimination. In fact, starting-up I encountered situations where people did not take me seriously due to my gender, race or age but what I realized now and I think everyone should learn from is that the more knowledge you acquire and the more your network grows, the more powerful you will become. I believe there is no obstacle that determination can’t overcome. In fact quite a good number of people working with ‘Welcome2Africa’ from around the world are much older than I am and I don’t think I have experienced discrimination on the bases of my age working in Ghana, although a friend of mine said it was partly because I showed up with an
accent, which might be unfortunately true’

As a conclusion, I strongly believe there is a need for a general re-orientation of Africans in the Diaspora especially for young Africans. Their global citizenship could actually be a spring-board of action for Africa rising.
For more information about AGRIQUE AFRICA INVESTMENT SUMMIT visit www.agriqueafrica.com and Bamidele Owoola can be reached via bsowoola@welcome2africa.org .

Opeyemi Oriniowo is a development practitioner and analyst with thematic focus on poverty and Inequality. He is a fellow of  the New Union for the Development of Green Economy (NUDGE), Netherlands. He is the Content-Editor for Abovewhispers.com and can be reached at ope.oriniowo@abovewhispers.com.