0:00:00.874,0:00:05.125
I experienced my first coup d'état at the age of four.

0:00:05.125,0:00:06.835
Because of the coup d'état,

0:00:06.835,0:00:09.962
my family had to leave my native home of Ghana

0:00:09.962,0:00:12.178
and move to the Gambia.

0:00:12.178,0:00:13.899
As luck would have it,

0:00:13.899,0:00:15.632
six months after we arrived,

0:00:15.632,0:00:18.703
they too had a military coup.

0:00:18.703,0:00:21.121
I vividly remember being woken[br]up in the middle of the night

0:00:21.121,0:00:23.348
and gathering the few belongings we could

0:00:23.348,0:00:26.297
and walking for about two hours

0:00:26.297,0:00:28.343
to a safe house.

0:00:28.343,0:00:31.175
For a week, we slept under our beds

0:00:31.175,0:00:35.956
because we were worried that bullets[br]might fly through the window.

0:00:35.956,0:00:38.138
Then, at the age of eight,

0:00:38.138,0:00:40.265
we moved to Botswana.

0:00:40.265,0:00:42.458
This time, it was different.

0:00:42.458,0:00:44.292
There were no coups.

0:00:44.292,0:00:47.335
Everything worked. Great education.

0:00:47.335,0:00:50.310
They had such good infrastructure[br]that even at the time they had

0:00:50.310,0:00:52.211
a fiber-optic telephone system,

0:00:52.211,0:00:55.260
long before it had reached Western countries.

0:00:57.466,0:00:59.349
The only thing they didn't have

0:00:59.349,0:01:00.679
is that they didn't have

0:01:00.679,0:01:03.329
their own national television station,

0:01:03.329,0:01:05.220
and so I remember watching

0:01:05.220,0:01:07.705
TV from neighboring South Africa,

0:01:07.705,0:01:10.326
and watching Nelson Mandela in jail

0:01:10.326,0:01:12.621
being offered a chance to come out

0:01:12.621,0:01:15.501
if he would give up the apartheid struggle.

0:01:15.501,0:01:16.616
But he didn't. He refused to do that

0:01:16.616,0:01:18.464
until he actually achieved his objective

0:01:18.464,0:01:21.676
of freeing South Africa from apartheid.

0:01:21.676,0:01:25.709
And I remember feeling how just one good leader

0:01:25.709,0:01:30.557
could make such a big difference in Africa.

0:01:30.557,0:01:32.830
Then at the age of 12,

0:01:32.830,0:01:36.170
my family sent me to high school in Zimbabwe.

0:01:36.170,0:01:39.747
Initially, this too was amazing:

0:01:39.747,0:01:44.933
growing economy, excellent infrastructure,

0:01:44.933,0:01:46.969
and it seemed like it was a model

0:01:46.969,0:01:49.658
for economic development in Africa.

0:01:49.658,0:01:51.649
I graduated from high school in Zimbabwe

0:01:51.649,0:01:53.070
and I went off to college.

0:01:53.070,0:01:57.161
Six years later, I returned to the country.

0:01:57.161,0:01:59.145
Everything was different.

0:01:59.145,0:02:02.396
It had shattered into pieces.

0:02:02.396,0:02:05.606
Millions of people had emigrated,

0:02:05.606,0:02:07.413
the economy was in a shambles,

0:02:07.413,0:02:09.004
and it seemed all of a sudden that 30 years

0:02:09.004,0:02:11.889
of development had been wiped out.

0:02:11.889,0:02:15.377
How could a country go so bad so fast?

0:02:15.377,0:02:16.990
Most people would agree

0:02:16.990,0:02:19.178
that it's all because of leadership.

0:02:19.178,0:02:22.958
One man, President Robert Mugabe,

0:02:22.958,0:02:24.168
is almost single-handedly responsible

0:02:24.168,0:02:27.515
for having destroyed this country.

0:02:27.515,0:02:29.244
Now, all these experiences of living in different

0:02:29.244,0:02:31.675
parts of Africa growing up

0:02:31.675,0:02:33.497
did two things to me.

0:02:33.497,0:02:37.776
The first is it made me fall in love with Africa.

0:02:37.776,0:02:39.699
Everywhere I went,

0:02:39.699,0:02:42.377
I experienced the wonderful beauty of our continent

0:02:42.377,0:02:45.534
and saw the resilience and the spirit of our people,

0:02:45.534,0:02:47.461
and at the time, I realized that I wanted to dedicate

0:02:47.461,0:02:52.242
the rest of my life to making this continent great.

0:02:52.242,0:02:54.144
But I also realized that making Africa great

0:02:54.144,0:02:57.461
would require addressing this issue of leadership.

0:02:57.461,0:02:59.632
You see, all these countries I lived in,

0:02:59.632,0:03:01.624
the coups d'état

0:03:01.624,0:03:04.683
and the corruption I'd seen in Ghana and Gambia

0:03:04.683,0:03:07.405
and in Zimbabwe,

0:03:07.405,0:03:11.858
contrasted with the wonderful examples I had seen

0:03:11.858,0:03:16.412
in Botswana and in South [br]Africa of good leadership.

0:03:16.412,0:03:20.495
It made me realize that Africa would rise or fall

0:03:20.495,0:03:24.174
because of the quality of our leaders.

0:03:24.174,0:03:26.423
Now, one might think, of course,

0:03:26.423,0:03:29.191
leadership matters everywhere.

0:03:29.191,0:03:33.421
But if there's one thing you take[br]away from my talk today, it is this:

0:03:33.421,0:03:36.550
In Africa, more than anywhere else in the world,

0:03:36.550,0:03:39.876
the difference that just one good leader can make

0:03:39.876,0:03:43.435
is much greater than anywhere [br]else, and here's why.

0:03:43.435,0:03:46.225
It's because in Africa, we have weak institutions,

0:03:46.225,0:03:48.903
like the judiciary, the constitution,

0:03:48.903,0:03:52.094
civil society and so forth.

0:03:52.094,0:03:55.944
So here's a general rule of thumb that I believe in:

0:03:55.944,0:03:58.711
When societies have strong institutions,

0:03:58.711,0:04:01.973
the difference that one good[br]leader can make is limited,

0:04:01.973,0:04:04.180
but when you have weak institutions,

0:04:04.180,0:04:05.910
then just one good leader

0:04:05.910,0:04:08.058
can make or break that country.

0:04:08.058,0:04:11.366
Let me make it a bit more concrete.

0:04:11.366,0:04:14.415
You become the president of the United States.

0:04:14.415,0:04:16.687
You think, "Wow, I've arrived.

0:04:16.687,0:04:19.750
I'm the most powerful man in the world."

0:04:19.750,0:04:23.436
So you decide, perhaps let me pass a law.

0:04:23.436,0:04:24.978
All of a sudden, Congress taps you on the shoulder

0:04:24.978,0:04:28.111
and says, "No, no, no, no, no, you can't do that."

0:04:28.111,0:04:30.820
You say, "Let me try this way."

0:04:30.820,0:04:32.273
The Senate comes and says, "Uh-uh,

0:04:32.273,0:04:35.101
we don't think you can do that."

0:04:35.101,0:04:37.744
You say, perhaps, "Let me print some money.

0:04:37.744,0:04:40.399
I think the economy needs a stimulus."

0:04:40.399,0:04:41.894
The central bank governor will think you're crazy.

0:04:41.894,0:04:45.000
You might get impeached for that.

0:04:45.000,0:04:47.307
But if you become the president of Zimbabwe,

0:04:47.307,0:04:50.440
and you say, "You know, I really like this job.

0:04:50.440,0:04:55.225
I think I'd like to stay in it forever."[br](Laughter)

0:04:55.225,0:04:58.070
Well, you just can.

0:04:58.070,0:05:00.550
You decide you want to print money.

0:05:00.550,0:05:02.453
You call the central bank governor and you say,

0:05:02.453,0:05:04.785
"Please double the money supply."

0:05:04.785,0:05:06.226
He'll say, "Okay, yes, sir,

0:05:06.226,0:05:09.770
is there anything else I can do for you?"

0:05:09.770,0:05:13.609
This is the power that African leaders have,

0:05:13.609,0:05:17.127
and this is why they make the most difference

0:05:17.127,0:05:19.581
on the continent.

0:05:19.581,0:05:21.626
The good news is that

0:05:21.626,0:05:24.464
the quality of leadership in Africa has been improving.

0:05:24.464,0:05:27.206
We've had three generations [br]of leaders, in my mind.

0:05:27.206,0:05:29.434
Generation one are those who appeared

0:05:29.434,0:05:30.976
in the '50s and '60s.

0:05:30.976,0:05:33.414
These are people like Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana

0:05:33.414,0:05:35.827
and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania.

0:05:35.827,0:05:38.432
The legacy they left is that they[br]brought independence to Africa.

0:05:38.432,0:05:39.737
They freed us from colonialism,

0:05:39.737,0:05:42.121
and let's give them credit for that.

0:05:42.121,0:05:45.133
They were followed by generation two.

0:05:45.133,0:05:47.183
These are people that brought nothing

0:05:47.183,0:05:49.320
but havoc to Africa.

0:05:49.320,0:05:52.750
Think warfare, corruption, human rights abuses.

0:05:52.750,0:05:54.783
This is the stereotype of [br]the typical African leader

0:05:54.783,0:05:56.178
that we typically think of:

0:05:56.178,0:05:58.184
Mobutu Sese Seko from Zaire,

0:05:58.184,0:06:00.565
Sani Abacha from Nigeria.

0:06:00.565,0:06:03.741
The good news is that most of[br]these leaders have moved on,

0:06:03.741,0:06:05.845
and they were replaced by generation three.

0:06:05.845,0:06:08.161
These are people like the late Nelson Mandela

0:06:08.161,0:06:10.175
and most of the leaders that we see in Africa today,

0:06:10.175,0:06:12.852
like Paul Kagame and so forth.

0:06:12.852,0:06:15.960
Now these leaders are by no means perfect,

0:06:15.960,0:06:17.605
but the one thing they have done is that they have

0:06:17.605,0:06:20.603
cleaned up much of the mess of generation two.

0:06:20.603,0:06:22.061
They've stopped the fighting,

0:06:22.061,0:06:25.160
and I call them the stabilizer generation.

0:06:25.160,0:06:27.110
They're much more accountable to their people,

0:06:27.110,0:06:30.305
they've improved macroeconomic policies,

0:06:30.305,0:06:32.240
and we are seeing for the first time

0:06:32.240,0:06:34.580
Africa's growing, and in [br]fact it's the second fastest

0:06:34.580,0:06:36.425
growing economic region in the world.

0:06:36.425,0:06:38.591
So these leaders are by no means perfect,

0:06:38.591,0:06:39.923
but they are by and large

0:06:39.923,0:06:44.749
the best leaders we've seen in the last 50 years.

0:06:44.749,0:06:47.628
So where to from here?

0:06:47.628,0:06:49.844
I believe that the next generation

0:06:49.844,0:06:52.476
to come after this, generation four,

0:06:52.476,0:06:55.009
has a unique opportunity

0:06:55.009,0:06:57.564
to transform the continent.

0:06:57.564,0:06:59.408
Specifically, they can do two things

0:06:59.408,0:07:01.534
that previous generations have not done.

0:07:01.534,0:07:03.716
The first thing they need to do

0:07:03.716,0:07:06.144
is they need to create prosperity for the continent.

0:07:06.144,0:07:08.031
Why is prosperity so important?

0:07:08.031,0:07:09.714
Because none of the previous generations

0:07:09.714,0:07:12.394
have been able to tackle this issue of poverty.

0:07:12.394,0:07:13.710
Africa today

0:07:13.710,0:07:16.540
has the fastest growing population in the world,

0:07:16.540,0:07:19.241
but also is the poorest.

0:07:19.241,0:07:22.918
By 2030, Africa will have a[br]larger workforce than China,

0:07:22.918,0:07:26.720
and by 2050, it will have the[br]largest workforce in the world.

0:07:26.720,0:07:29.252
One billion people will need jobs in Africa,

0:07:29.252,0:07:31.626
so if we don't grow our economies fast enough,

0:07:31.626,0:07:34.073
we're sitting on a ticking time bomb,

0:07:34.073,0:07:37.605
not just for Africa but for the entire world.

0:07:37.605,0:07:39.743
Let me show you an example

0:07:39.743,0:07:41.449
of one person who is living up to this legacy

0:07:41.449,0:07:44.212
of creating prosperity: Laetitia.

0:07:44.212,0:07:47.203
Laetitia's a young woman from Kenya

0:07:47.203,0:07:49.000
who at the age of 13 had to drop out of school

0:07:49.000,0:07:51.910
because her family couldn't [br]afford to pay fees for her.

0:07:51.910,0:07:54.111
So she started her own business rearing rabbits,

0:07:54.111,0:07:55.710
which happen to be a delicacy in this part of Kenya

0:07:55.710,0:07:57.308
that she's from.

0:07:57.308,0:07:59.292
This business did so well that within a year,

0:07:59.292,0:08:01.448
she was employing 15 women

0:08:01.448,0:08:03.425
and was able to generate enough income

0:08:03.425,0:08:05.146
that she was able to send herself to school,

0:08:05.146,0:08:06.155
and through these women

0:08:06.155,0:08:08.862
fund another 65 children to go to school.

0:08:08.862,0:08:10.564
The profits that she generated,

0:08:10.564,0:08:12.149
she used that to build a school,

0:08:12.149,0:08:13.697
and today she educates

0:08:13.697,0:08:16.238
400 children in her community.

0:08:16.238,0:08:18.128
And she's just turned 18.

0:08:18.128,0:08:22.443
(Applause)

0:08:24.857,0:08:28.713
Another example is Erick Rajaonary.

0:08:28.713,0:08:31.797
Erick comes from the island of Madagascar.

0:08:31.797,0:08:34.596
Now, Erick realized that agriculture

0:08:34.596,0:08:36.260
would be the key to creating jobs

0:08:36.260,0:08:38.319
in the rural areas of Madagascar,

0:08:38.319,0:08:40.265
but he also realized that fertilizer was a very

0:08:40.265,0:08:43.596
expensive input for most farmers in Madagascar.

0:08:43.596,0:08:46.623
Madagascar has these very special bats

0:08:46.623,0:08:48.207
that produce these droppings

0:08:48.207,0:08:50.614
that are very high in nutrients.

0:08:50.614,0:08:53.989
In 2006, Erick quit his job [br]as a chartered accountant

0:08:53.989,0:08:55.958
and started a company to manufacture

0:08:55.958,0:08:59.144
fertilizer from the bat droppings.

0:08:59.144,0:09:01.442
Today, Erick has built a business

0:09:01.442,0:09:04.283
that generates several million dollars of revenue,

0:09:04.283,0:09:07.116
and he employs 70 people full time

0:09:07.116,0:09:08.994
and another 800 people during the season

0:09:08.994,0:09:11.976
when the bats drop their droppings the most.

0:09:11.976,0:09:14.539
Now, what I like about this story

0:09:14.539,0:09:18.421
is that it shows that opportunities [br]to create prosperity

0:09:18.421,0:09:20.716
can be found almost anywhere.

0:09:20.716,0:09:22.770
Erick is known as the Batman.

0:09:22.770,0:09:23.785
(Laughter)

0:09:23.785,0:09:25.752
And who would have thought that you would have

0:09:25.752,0:09:28.414
been able to build a multimillion-dollar business

0:09:28.414,0:09:32.766
employing so many people just from bat poo?

0:09:35.444,0:09:39.395
The second thing that this generation needs to do

0:09:39.395,0:09:41.836
is to create our institutions.

0:09:41.836,0:09:43.651
They need to build these institutions such that we

0:09:43.651,0:09:46.876
are never held to ransom again

0:09:46.876,0:09:51.330
by a few individuals like Robert Mugabe.

0:09:51.330,0:09:54.472
Now, all of this sounds great,

0:09:54.472,0:09:58.500
but where are we going to[br]get this generation four from?

0:09:58.500,0:10:00.941
Do we just sit and hope that they emerge

0:10:00.941,0:10:04.705
by chance, or that God gives them to us?

0:10:04.705,0:10:06.458
No, I don't think so.

0:10:06.458,0:10:09.610
It's too important an issue [br]for us to leave it to chance.

0:10:09.610,0:10:12.917
I believe that we need to create African institutions,

0:10:12.917,0:10:15.628
home-grown, that will identify and develop

0:10:15.628,0:10:19.379
these leaders in a systematic, practical way.

0:10:19.379,0:10:21.030
We've been doing this for the last 10 years

0:10:21.030,0:10:23.581
through the African Leadership Academy.

0:10:23.581,0:10:26.262
Laetitia is one of our young leaders.

0:10:26.262,0:10:28.670
Today, we have 700 of them [br]that are being groomed

0:10:28.670,0:10:30.720
for the African continent,

0:10:30.720,0:10:31.795
and over the next 50 years,

0:10:31.795,0:10:34.789
we expect to create 6,000 of them.

0:10:34.789,0:10:37.408
But one thing has been troubling me.

0:10:37.408,0:10:39.500
We would get about 4,000 applications a year

0:10:39.500,0:10:41.569
for 100 young leaders that we could take

0:10:41.569,0:10:42.883
into this academy,

0:10:42.883,0:10:44.944
and so I saw the tremendous hunger that existed

0:10:44.944,0:10:47.835
for this leadership training that we're offering.

0:10:47.835,0:10:50.951
But we couldn't satisfy it.

0:10:50.951,0:10:54.973
So today, I'm announcing for the first time in public

0:10:54.973,0:10:59.611
an extension to this vision for[br]the African Leadership Academy.

0:10:59.611,0:11:04.718
We're building 25 brand new universities in Africa

0:11:04.718,0:11:06.267
that are going to cultivate this next generation

0:11:06.267,0:11:08.113
of African leaders.

0:11:08.113,0:11:11.975
Each campus will have 10,000 leaders at a time

0:11:11.975,0:11:14.201
so we'll be educating and developing

0:11:14.201,0:11:17.015
250,000 leaders at any given time.

0:11:17.015,0:11:20.738
(Applause)

0:11:24.137,0:11:26.388
Over the next 50 years, this institution

0:11:26.388,0:11:28.346
will create three million transformative leaders

0:11:28.346,0:11:30.379
for the continent.

0:11:30.379,0:11:32.620
My hope is that half of them

0:11:32.620,0:11:34.172
will become the entrepreneurs that we need,

0:11:34.172,0:11:35.995
who will create these jobs that we need,

0:11:35.995,0:11:37.502
and the other half

0:11:37.502,0:11:39.189
will go into government

0:11:39.189,0:11:40.388
and the nonprofit sector,

0:11:40.388,0:11:44.010
and they will build the institutions that we need.

0:11:44.010,0:11:47.400
But they won't just learn academics.

0:11:47.400,0:11:50.190
They will also learn how to become leaders,

0:11:50.190,0:11:52.074
and they will develop their skills as entrepreneurs.

0:11:52.074,0:11:55.938
So think of this as Africa's Ivy League,

0:11:55.938,0:11:59.220
but instead of getting admitted[br]because of your SAT scores

0:11:59.220,0:12:01.101
or because of how much money you have

0:12:01.101,0:12:02.303
or which family you come from,

0:12:02.303,0:12:05.225
the main criteria for getting into this university

0:12:05.225,0:12:07.199
will be what is the potential that you have

0:12:07.199,0:12:10.461
for transforming Africa?

0:12:10.461,0:12:13.970
But what we're doing is [br]just one group of institutions.

0:12:13.970,0:12:18.060
We cannot transform Africa by ourselves.

0:12:18.060,0:12:19.762
My hope

0:12:19.762,0:12:21.900
is that many, many other home-grown

0:12:21.900,0:12:25.318
African institutions will blossom,

0:12:25.318,0:12:27.020
and these institutions will all come together

0:12:27.020,0:12:29.480
with a common vision of developing

0:12:29.480,0:12:31.363
this next generation of African leaders,

0:12:31.363,0:12:33.296
generation four,

0:12:33.296,0:12:35.760
and they will teach them this common message:

0:12:35.760,0:12:40.540
create jobs, build our institutions.

0:12:40.540,0:12:42.790
Nelson Mandela once said,

0:12:42.790,0:12:44.592
"Every now and then,

0:12:44.592,0:12:47.828
a generation is called upon to be great.

0:12:47.828,0:12:51.036
You can be that great generation."

0:12:51.036,0:12:54.588
I believe that if we carefully identify and cultivate

0:12:54.588,0:12:57.561
the next generation of African leaders,

0:12:57.561,0:13:00.336
then this generation four that is coming up

0:13:00.336,0:13:03.768
will be the greatest generation that Africa

0:13:03.768,0:13:08.180
and indeed the entire world has ever seen.

0:13:08.180,0:13:10.212
Thank you.

0:13:10.212,0:13:13.797
(Applause)