- Business Leaders Consider Africa’s Benefits in $12tr Global Development Target
The Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics base (LADOL), has joined notable world business promoters in mapping out strategies to actualize how Africa can effectively reap a whopping $1 trillion from a projected $12 trillion new market value in an emerging global economic system.
The projected $12 trillion economic developing plan evolved from the last meeting of the world business leaders in London, United Kingdom (UK), under the aegis of Business and Sustainable Development Commission (BSDC), to impact on the global economic system within the next decade.
At the London meeting, the group had raised the optimism that sustainable business models could open economic opportunities of such high value while at the same time creating over 380 million jobs every year by 2030.
The Business and Sustainable Development Commission which was launched in Davos in January 2016, has the Managing Director of LADOL Dr. Amy Jadesimi as a member from Nigeria alongside other 36 global business entrepreneurs drawn from business, finance, civil society, labour, and international organizations across the world.
At its second meeting of the year which was held in Nairobi Kenya at the weekend, the body essentially deliberated on ways of getting the African continent to optimally benefit from the huge projection with the conclusion that the continent could rake in $1 trillion dollars from the projected $12 trillion largesse, if well harnessed.
The Commission has a twin objective of mapping the economic advantages that could be available to business if the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals are achieved, as well as highlighting how businesses can contribute to delivering such goals.
In its wide range deliberations at the Kenya confab, the Commission under the Chairmanship of former Deputy Secretary –General of the United Nations (UN), Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, noted that African business leaders, entrepreneurs and economies can benefit and even help to develop significant economic opportunities if they pursue sustainable business models.
The Commission’s Chair, Lord Malloch Brown, “the world is seeing increasingly that African companies are models for what can be achieved with ingenuity and innovation as they solve difficult social challenges. They are not wedded to old solutions and so here in Kenya, we see digital innovators delivering banking energy and health solutions. The speed of innovation and adoption is astonishing.
“The Better Business, Better World report launch in Nairobi puts the African private sector squarely in the drivers’ seat on the road to achieving sustainable development and we welcome more African business leaders to join the Business Commission” he said.
Commenting on the goals of the Commission, Dr. Jadesimi, urged members to demonstrate commitment to the ideals of the report, beyond making it a mere paper work. “We need to show these ideas work not just in a report but on the business frontline,” she added.
The group noted that real development, particularly in the continent has been at slow pace; even as it pointed out that “over the past 30 years, the world has seen huge social improvements and technological progress.
“Yet despite these successes, our current model of development is deeply flawed. Signs of its failure and imperfections in today’s markets are everywhere. There are vast numbers of people who do not have access to basic services such as healthcare, clean water, clean energy and sanitation. Social inequality and youth unemployment is worsening in countries across the world, and many education systems are still failing to deliver access to high quality education.
“The uncertainty created by these burdens makes it hard for businesses to invest with confidence. The Better Business, Better World report offers a positive alternative: setting Business strategy and transforming markets in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals” the report further noted.
