Stakeholders Discuss Seven-year Plan for Accelerated Development in Africa

Nume Ekeghe

Last week, key players from the government, the diplomatic community, civil society, and the public and private sectors gathered in Lagos for a two-day Africa Social Impact Summit (ASIS), co-convened by Sterling One Foundation and the United Nations, Nigeria.

The gathering, which was held under the theme – Global Vision, Local Action: Repositioning the African Development Ecosystem for Sustainable Outcomes, was the second edition of the Africa Social Impact Summit designed to help build partnerships and galvanise investments that will ensure that Africa makes rapid progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

With the world halfway through the 15-year timeline set for the Sustainable Development Goals, there has been a call across the globe to review the work done to see what has worked and what has not, and to identify critical areas where additional measures are needed for success to be achieved.

CEO of the Sterling One Foundation, Mrs Olapeju Ibekwe, expressed hope for several partnerships and innovations to emerge from the summit in her opening remarks, noting that she was looking forward to existing social impact initiatives in various rural communities, accessing multilevel resources to be able to do more and spread their impact from community to community across the continent. She added that she was humbled by the intentionality of the private sector to own the sustainable development goals and grateful for the partnership of the United Nations as the co-convener of the summit.

“Across the continent, the people are waiting for action. For far too long, Africa has been tagged – the Emerging Continent, with the continent’s potential, a recurring theme of conversation; yet, poverty, hunger, climate crisis, and inequality remain visible; thus, Africa is yearning for action. I remain confident and incurably optimistic that there is the capacity for the type of action we seek in this room. There is the capacity to build strong partnerships for

sustainable solutions to move from plans to action quickly. I urge everyone to interact and collaborate because the stakes are very high,” she stated.

In his welcome remarks, Managing Director and CEO of Sterling Bank Limited and Board Member of the Sterling One Foundation, Mr Abubakar Suleiman, explained that the true essence of the Summit was to ensure that at every level, the issues and challenges resulting in widespread poverty across Africa get tackled rightly and that everyone is moving in the right direction.

“Six months from now, when we reach out to you, we want to hear that because you came here, you met someone, and you established a relationship, you rethought your approach, therefore, are getting more value from your resources, and are better at solving problems together. The only thing that matters is the relationships you form today and how these relationships transmit to a much better outcome than you had before you came here,” he said.