The founder of GetBundi, Osita Oparaugo, has outlined two major actions that Africa must take if the continent’s quest for economic independence was to become a reality.
Oparaugo, in a paper delivered during a recent investment roundtable in Nairobi, Kenya, said that simply signing more agreements, creating more institutions, or making more declarations cannot guarantee economic independence for Africa.
‘If we genuinely want an Africa that can learn, innovate, produce, trade and compete, we must confront two fundamental barriers holding back our young people,’ Oparaugo said.
‘We must rethink the language of education. And we must tear down the barriers preventing Africans from moving freely across Africa,’ he said.
Oparaugo described language as one of the biggest barriers to education, digital inclusion and technological participation in Africa, canvassing for the continent’s young people to be taught in African languages.
‘Millions of young Africans are expected to learn complex ideas, acquire technical skills and understand new technologies primarily through languages that are not their mother tongue.
‘We need to rethink this model,’ he said.
The GetBundi founder clarified that he was not asking Africa to abandon English, French, Portuguese, Arabic or other international languages as these languages remain important for global communication and commerce.
However, he said, young Africans should be able to learn digital skills, mathematics, science, entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence and other practical subjects in the language in which they think most naturally.
‘Education should meet people where they are. Imagine artificial intelligence that understands Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Swahili, Amharic, Zulu and hundreds of other African languages,’ Oparaugo said.
‘Imagine a farmer learning digital agriculture in his mother tongue. Imagine a young woman learning coding, digital marketing or financial literacy in the language she speaks every day. Imagine African entrepreneurs using AI tools built around their languages, cultures, markets and commercial realities.
‘That is why Africa must invest aggressively in large language models and digital technologies built for indigenous African languages,’ he said.
The objective of education in the continent, he said, should not simply be to produce educated elites but to equip young Africans with skills they can commercialise; skills that can build businesses, create products, solve African problems, and generate employment and wealth.
Stressing on the need for free cross-border movement, the GetBundi founder stated that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) would be a joke unless Africans themselves are able to move freely across the continent.
‘There is no meaningful free trade without meaningful free movement. Goods do not move themselves. Services do not deliver themselves. Businesses do not expand themselves. People move goods. People provide services. People build businesses. People create markets,’ he said.
‘How can we say goods should move freely while the entrepreneur who owns the goods cannot?’ he queried.
He further asked how a young Nigerian can build a market in Kenya, or a Kenyan entrepreneur expand into Ghana, or a Ghanaian professional pursue an opportunity in Rwanda if movement across Africa remains unnecessarily difficult.
He added that the AfCFTA can be transformative, but for that to manifest, agreements on paper must be matched by realities on the ground.
‘Africa needs to progressively dismantle unnecessary barriers to intra-African movement and build toward genuine continental mobility,’ he said, urging the African Union and governments to make the free movement of Africans within the continent an economic priority.
He emphasised the need for Africa to progressively pursue deeper financial integration, including serious discussion about mechanisms that reduce the cost and complexity of trading across dozens of currencies.
‘Africa’s economic future will not be determined by a small elite. It will be determined by its young people. They will build the companies. They will write the software. They will operate the farms. They will create the technologies. They will manufacture the products. They will provide the services. And they will trade with one another,’ Oparaugo said.
‘But first, we must give them education they can fully access and a continent they can freely navigate,’ he said.