The African Leadership Magazine honoured the continent’s forward-thinkers at the eighth African Leaderships Person of the Year Awards.
The prestigious event hosted a ballroom filled with knowledgeable and commendable leaders at the Sandton Convention Centre on 2 February.
This year’s gala evening conveyed a theme of ‘Africa for Africans – exploring the gains of a connected continent, is billed together’, allowing representatives from all walks of the continent to come together and build a better Africa.
The African Leadership Persons of the Year Award is the continent’s premium vote-based endorsement, reserved annually for those who are contributing towards promoting their environment and positively altering her narrative.
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According to the magazine’s publisher Dr Ken Giami, these awards do not only highlight the political and economic leadership of Africa today, but the concept of leadership is also so much more. “That is why Leadership Magazine was born. I stand here to believe that a new Africa is possible -where peace, democratic values and justice can win,” he said.
“An Africa where its people can break barriers and turn challenges into opportunities. An African where its young people will feel safe and enabled enough to distance the ideas of western countries and roll up their sleeves right here in the continent.”
This year the magazine awarded Akinwumi Adesina, a game-changer and president of the African Development Bank. Formally Nigeria’s minister of agriculture and rural development, Adesina was elected as the eighth president in 2015.
Upon his election, he launched a strategy based on energy, agriculture, industrialisation, regional integration and bettering the lives of African people. The strategy was quickly approved on the structure around these five priorities.
In September 2016, Adesina was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to serve as a member of the Lead Group of the Scaling-Up Nutrition Movement.
In 2017, Adesina was awarded the 2017 World Food Prize and donated the $250 000 (around R4 million) he received to the development of African youth in agriculture.
Adesina has continued to advocate for the continent, making many impactful changes in the short period that he has been elected. “I focus on solutions, not problems. My principal for development is very simple – I list down the things I feel most ashamed about and then I do the opposite,” he said.
He added that businesses should continue to invest in the continent as the economy can only improve. “Savvy investors know that if you are not in Africa, you are not in business.”
Keynote speaker, deputy president David Mabuza, commended Adesina noted for his efforts as the continent is not without its challenges – ranging from poor infrastructure, political and economic governance and inadequate human capital, it is up to us to find the solutions.
“Our resolve remains firmly that as Africans we must always find African solutions to Africa’s problems. We are committed to playing our role with diligence within the African family of nations,” Mabuza said.
He noted that South Africa has committed more than ever to the development of the continent. “Our destiny and aspirations are inseparable from those of our brothers in the continent – for the same economic and social progress. Shoulder to shoulder we will stand together and continue to build an Africa that is free and independent.
“Our commitment to the course of a prosperous and a better African is unwavering. It is in that spirit that as a country we have placed our resources both human and financial to the resolution of conflicts in the continent.”
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