I get to appreciate not just the different cultures, but the languages and what helped form who I am as a person. I am incredibly proud of the continent. I think that it is one of the most vibrant, energetic spaces in the world. I've had the pleasure of traveling to over 20 countries and nothing speaks to home, to welcome and to culture like any country on the African continent.

A lot of people get fascinated with the African experience. When you come to any country, you're incredibly excited about the landscape, having an opportunity to see livestock and being able to connect, intrinsically, with nature in a way that a lot of global North-Western countries may not allow you to do.

I think a lot of times we have a fixedness on business strategy. So, as a student of economics management practices, particularly American management practices, there is a wide-sweeping strategy of top-down leadership in a way that it seems as if foreign companies know better than locals. Not just in the establishment, but in the continuous execution and rollouts of deployment and that's, largely, a huge mistake.

Africa is starting to boom in many sectors as our population and connectivity grows. I am particularly proud of the creative sector that is doing well despite being so under-supported. There is opportunity for entrepreneurs who want to scale up while maintaining quality.

I think that a lot of the reports on our population look at it from an economist's lens. What that does, again, is to commodify what people perceive as each individual African citizen's contribution to the existing capitalistic world order.

Our diversity should be considered an opportunity rather than a challenge. There is no place quite as diverse as Africa, and there is power in accepting that. Only in our differences can we find what we each lack.

Community is a great foundation for impactful entrepreneurship. You want to be able to collaborate and tap into other resources on your journey. If we focus on community, the more we can project our future as a continent.

So you realize that beyond the verbal barrier, the barriers of understanding and empathy are incredibly important. And hopefully, this opportunity we have for a pause globally, collectively, allows a lot of us to relearn and resocialize ways in which we speak a language of collective humanity, a language of shared empathy. 

The fourth industrial revolution will not and should not be expected to be the same for everyone.  We all have different contexts in which 4IR can be applied, and Africa is no different. 4IR might look like Minority Report in some regions of the world, and like Wakanda in others.

Africa is not economically placed to dominate markets yet. Despite all the conversation, there is little investing happening here. Despite this, we have enough success stories to stay encouraged.