Strive Masiyiwa's Recent LinkedIn Posts

Thanks for joining us onstage, David Wood. We appreciate Accenture's partnership and shared vision, together with other partnership announcements last week. #SolutionSeekers #AfricanAISovereignty #GrowingOpportunitiesTogether #AcceleratingAIAcrossAfrica

This article was written mostly for the young African entrepreneurs who I've mentored on my platform for the past 12+ years. [Some are actually not quite so young anymore]. I'm proud of them for many reasons, especially for staying focused on solutions and #Innovation [despite the conditions] all the while keeping an #EagleInAStorm mindset. AI is moving fast. What is in YOUR own hands? Don't waste time. #SkillUp. #SolutionSeekers #AfricanAISovereignty #GrowingProsperityTogether #AcceleratingAIAcrossAfrica #LeavingNoAfricanBehind "The best way to predict the future is to invent it"... Alan Kay Image credit: KWB - Ubuntu Hope via Google Gemini Nano Banana Pro [GPU image purchased from stock photo company]

Last September our top 13 young GoGettaz agrifood entrepreneurs received well-deserved recognition by Al Jazeera during the live finale pitch competition held in Dakar. Co-founded back in 2019, our GoGettaz Africa alumni have gone on to do great things, including winning the grand prize in Jack Ma's Africa Business Heroes [ABH] competition in 2025... with three of our GoGettaz alums in the ABH Top 10 finale competition, held in Kigali just last month! Wow! Congratulations once again to all. Take note: This year's GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize competition is just around the corner. If you are [or know of] a young African agripreneur with #Innovative solutions to challenges and #Opportunities in Africa's food system... Don't wait till last minute to apply. Applications will open in March or April. To be eligible, your #Agrifood company must be registered and headquartered on the African continent, so get going on that if you need to. We've had some amazing competitors from across the continent with some remarkable innovations! This year we hope to have competitors from ALL across our African nations! #SolutionSeekers #EntrepreneurIt #YoungAfricanInnovators

To say Reverend Jesse Jackson was a towering figure would be a profound understatement. He was all that and much more. I think he spent his whole life living out the quote he is best known for: "Keep hope alive."   Today I would like to extend my deep condolences to Rev. Jesse Jackson’s wife Jacqueline, and to his family and loved ones, and to all around the world who shared his passion for peace and justice, and in whose hearts his global message of brotherhood so deeply resonated.   Although I met him briefly, I never really had the opportunity to know Rev. Jackson personally. We had many mutual African [American] friends, such as Rev. Andrew Young and the late John Lewis, whom I also met and deeply respected.   One of my earliest passions in life was learning the history and life of African Americans, which led me to read books by and about the greatest heroes like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and of course, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. If you have read the story of Dr. King, you will soon get to know about Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Andrew Young, amongst others.    I will never forget the day Jesse Jackson announced that he would run for President of the United States. This was decades before Barack Obama did so successfully. Jesse Jackson first ran for president in 1984, a time when the very idea of a black person running for US President was unthinkable... and he ran not just once but again in 1988.   Martin Luther King Jr., Jesse Jackson, and Andrew Young [who continues to carry the legacy today] have at least one thing in common: They were all ordained as ministers of the Gospel, and would often return to the pulpit at weekends to preach. "We must turn to each other and not on each other, and choose higher ground," he said in one of his speeches. The best way to honour people like Jesse Jackson, who was passionate about Africa, and fought side by side with our own greatest leaders during the independence movement, is to order books [today] and learn about them, and to make sure your children do, too.    The history of African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans, and black peoples of Latin America is part of the history of our broader African Nation.    Reflecting on Rev. Jesse Jackson’s call decades ago to “keep hope alive,” especially as entrepreneurs here on this platform, let us continue to #ReimagineHope, #SowHope, and #GrowHope too, wherever we may be, with whatever is in our own hands.   Selah.   Image credits: Alamy

For the first time in my 40-year career as an entrepreneur, I can call myself an “industrialist”. I have an AI ‘Factory’ that manufactures #Intelligence. Think about it! #AfricanAISolutionSeekers #Innovation4SharedProsperity #LeavingNoAfricanBehind #MWC26 Image captions: Glimpse of (part of)Africa Pavilion at MWC last week, and the Cassava Technologies-led discussion on our African Language Models Initiative. Great teamwork and partnerships in action. Stay tuned!

Knowing what to do, and how to do it, is extremely important. And yet there is one more thing: WHEN to do it! Throughout my business career, I have always had to deal with three things: What must I do? How must I do it? When is the right time?   If you are smart, the questions “What must I do?” and “How must I do it?” really should come quite easily. You must be methodical and analytical. You must act in an intelligent way, taking into consideration your education, skills, research, advice from others, and so on.   What about “When must I do it?” That will take all your smarts. And one more thing: With timing, you cannot rush, and you cannot procrastinate either!   __Young people are likely to rush and make a mess, and older people are likely to procrastinate in the paralysis caused by often obsolete experience!   Wisdom resides neither in the rush of youth, nor in the experience of the aged.   There are times you are going to be called upon to be patient, and there are times you are going to be called upon to wait. The other day (the sage) Bishop TD Jakes told us in Chicago that the Wright Brothers knew what to do to get the first airplane airborne, and they knew how to do it, but several times they had to wait “until the wind was right”!   When you have worked out [as well as possible] what you must do and how you must do it, then focus on #Timing.    Ask yourself "if the wind is right”?   #Product, #People, and #Process can build a big business, but #Timing will decide whether you take off successfully or not.   Now some of you will remember that I wrote the above post for young African entrepreneurs on Facebook back in August 2018…    Fast forward: Yesterday I spoke on a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos focusing on "The State of AI Diffusion" [adoption/usage].    Here’s the link: https://lnkd.in/e6dcCjPw   As many of you know, I rarely participate on panels anymore, but I was invited by my friend Brad Smith at Microsoft and knew AI was an important topic... for Africa, #entrepreneurs [and the world].     Moderated by Richard Quest of CNN, our lively hour-long conversation about AI's potential, both now and unknowns in the future, touched on some urgent matters... including #Threats posed by potential evil-doers, and of course, new #Opportunities to benefit humanity in ways never before imagined as possible.     From whatever our sector or nationality, I think we all agreed on the urgent need for #Investment: in the #Capability to understand the potential #Risks that AI could pose [and leadership to take responsible #Actions accordingly], as well as investment in both #Infrastructure and #Skills.   #Timing here is key.   The "wind is right”. We cannot afford to procrastinate.   #InnovatingAISolutions #GrowingAfricanProsperity #ResponsibleAIGuardRails #LeavingNoAfricanBehind   Image credit: Johan Swanepoel (not AI). Thanks for assistance finding name!

Last year at the World Economic Forum, Satya Nadella remarked: "We have to take the unintended consequences of any new technology, along with all the benefits, and think about them simultaneously, as opposed to waiting for the unintended consequences to show up and then address them”.  Many technology colleagues have noted similar cautions. I couldn't agree more. Image credit: Sheree Sedgbeer, Botswana, 2014. [Not AI this time, the real deal!]

Many of you will know Maya Angelou's great poem — the one where she declares that no matter what life brings, STILL she rises. Out of history's pain, out of the darkness and the dust, she rises. Those words have always moved me deeply. Not just as poetry, but as a declaration of what all people are capable of. Today that spirit takes on a special meaning for our family. My wife Tsitsi Masiyiwa and our eldest daughter Elizabeth Tanya Masiyiwa are launching a book they've edited together called "And Still We Rise: The Power of Philanthropy". The premiere launch event will be held at Exclusive Books in Johannesburg this evening (13 March). I want to salute them both, and the dedicated professional staff and partners of Higherlife Foundation and Delta Philanthropies, for everything they have built and continue to build across our continent.  This book is not actually "about" philanthropy. It is a collection of personal stories written by 16 truly remarkable young Africans whose learning journeys led them to become medical doctors, PhDs, lawyers, engineers, entrepreneurs, and more. Most of the writers are our Joshua Nkomo Scholars and Capernaum Scholars from Zimbabwe, and some are from Lesotho. All were part of our Higherlife Foundation family. Each will tell you in his or her own words what it took to rise. This is a book I am genuinely proud of, even though I had nothing to do with writing it!  I often remind people that my wife and daughter are the philanthropists; all I do is provide the money. I don’t even sit on the board of the foundations they have set up. It's important to say that these 16 voices represent just a fraction of the tens of thousands of others not included in this book. Across the world now, there is an entire generation of young men and women from our growing Capernaum and Higherlife family of students who have also gone on to do extraordinary things quietly, without fanfare. This book is for all of them, too.  Since 1996, our scholarship programs have sent over 400,000 kids to school. This is just a tiny sample. We would love to hear from others who would like to share their own testimony, even if it may be more modest. In addition to bookstore sales launching tonight, you can also order all formats on Amazon: https://lnkd.in/eVR9AWWX Proceeds will go to RemitHope, a platform we recently launched so that you can also play your own part in helping others rise. Learn more here: https://remithope.org/ Image credit: KWB - Ubuntu Hope via AI, based on images from Higherlife Foundation. The book size pictured is not to scale, although it reflects the larger-than-life spirit reflected within the pages! Students take note: Applications for Joshua Nkomo Scholarships in Zimbabwe just opened, and will open in Lesotho in a few months. To apply heres's a link:  https://lnkd.in/ezWhKEj6 #AndStillWeRise  #SolutionSeekers  #LeavingNoAfricanBehind

African entrepreneurs should not be afraid to build global companies, or companies that operate globally. This is central to demonstrating to the world that we, too, can compete at the highest level globally.    There are many global companies from Africa, particularly from South Africa. Nigerian entrepreneurs as well as those from Egypt and Morocco have also begun to build a global presence. But we can and must do more. It is not as hard as some people think, but requires entrepreneurs who are confident in their own abilities and have very strong execution skills, resilience, and energy! Some of you might recall that it was more than 10 years ago now that I first shared this story with Africa's young entrepreneurs on my Facebook platform. New Zealand was and is an amazing country, with some of the most friendly people I have ever met. As we launched our business there, they welcomed us with open arms, even though we were a young company from Africa. To imagine that I made that 24+ hour trip to New Zealand (with a 10-11 hour time difference) almost every two weeks sounds insane, even now. Thank God, I was much younger back then! This was then our furthest business foray outside the continent of Africa.

Anyone who has ever read the Bible properly will tell you that some of the most important lessons in life do not come from nice people. "One who puts on his armour should not boast like one who takes it off," is an example. It comes from a bad guy called King Ahab, but on this occasion, he was teaching an important life lesson for those who brag about what they intend to do. I remember approaching a very powerful and successful businessman to get some help. He listened to me quietly and then said firmly: “Give me one reason why I should help you? You are trying to make money just like I’m trying to make money. You are hoping to pull on my heartstrings so I can help you. If I do that, I will allow you to go on believing that the world owes you a living". His tone made me wince. "Show me where it says I have an obligation to help you!” It was not nice. What a cold shower! Humiliated and angry, I sulked around and was bitter for days. I could not get it out of my mind. I swore that he was arrogant, and one day he would get what he deserved. Then I made the mistake of mentioning it to my mother. She laughed so much, I just couldn’t believe it! “He was right, you know. No one owes you a living. You cannot go through life hoping that a total stranger will come to your aid simply because he or she feels sorry for you!” Weeks, months, and years went by, and soon I turned it into a mantra: “No one owes me a living”. Looking back on my life at almost 65, and the amazing journey I have been on so far, I have steeled myself to look to God for help, and when people help me, I thank God for using them. Listen to me: There is nothing that can stop an entrepreneur who does not want to be stopped. This is because the very essence of being an entrepreneur means that you will find a way around any obstacle. “When something is important enough you do it, even if the odds are not in your favour...” Attributed to Elon Musk. That includes dusting yourself off and trying again and again, and yet again and again after that... As most of you probably know by now, I've shared today's "#ToughTalk moment" from my past mostly for the young entrepreneurs amongst you, both on this platform and FB.  @LionCubs - you can do it!

#BreakingNews Congratulations to Chancellor Tsitsi Masiyiwa Please join me in congratulating my wife who today was installed as Chancellor of Amref International University (AMIU) in Nairobi. Be sure to take a look at Amref's academic programmes! They even have a Health Entrepreneurship Academy. You'll see when you look at the Amref website that one focus is to train tomorrow's "health heroes". #Salute!   Here's the website link: https://amref.ac.ke/ and a link to the video of full ceremony held earlier today:  https://lnkd.in/egDihBtT [2hr 39min, the gowning and installation; 2hr 47min, Chancellor Masiyiwa is invited back on stage to give her acceptance remarks]. In case you missed it, I also want to share the message posted by our Higherlife Foundation when the ceremony was live a few hours ago: "LIVE from the moment: We're proud to share today that Amref International University is receiving its University Charter and installing Tsitsi Masiyiwa as Chancellor. This milestone reaffirms our shared commitment to health education, African leadership, innovation, and service. As our Co-Founder steps into this role, we look forward to a future where youth empowerment and academic excellence go hand in hand". #EducationExcellence #AfricanInnovation #GrowingFutureLeaders

#BreakingNews - Some of you may be interested in watching our conversation which is broadcasting from Davos this evening at 19:00CAT. More on this soon. https://lnkd.in/e5i2M7PY

On 31 December 1997, the High Court in Zimbabwe ruled that Econet Wireless had the right to operate its mobile network, bringing an end to a bitter legal battle that had gone on for five years. The government of Zimbabwe graciously announced that it would respect the ruling. After we set up the Econet Wireless Zimbabwe business, I decided to make the 31st of December our own “Thanksgiving Day” by giving all the money we make on that day to charity. This collection is separate from the money we give to our foundation in the country, Higherlife Foundation. I’m not going to tell you how much money it is, but it generally runs into millions of US dollars. The money is collected into a special fund then distributed to organisations country-wide that support orphaned and at-risk children. It is distributed by Higherlife Foundation. It is now a tradition that has gone on for 26 years. Now here is something I want you to think about: When it comes to giving, I have always tried to “institutionalise” what I do. In other words, I try to put in place a system that shows a long-term commitment. I also don’t like to make a song and dance about it; I would not be surprised if this is the first time I have mentioned this program in those 26 years. You will not find press statements and announcements made at the time. I just directed the management team of the company to do it, and every year, the CEO of Econet Zimbabwe, Dr Douglas Mboweni calls me to say how much has been collected, then we both thank the Lord for using us as vessels to support the needy and that is it. I have shared it with you because I hope some of you will do something similar. It does not start with millions. It could be a commitment to pay school fees for some children that are not from your own family or tribe, city, or nation. It could be donating books, or even one book. The list of ways to help grow our future, child by child, is really endless! Don’t do it once. Make a “tradition” of it, maybe by setting up a special account into which you put money and never access it other than for this annual day of #Giving. This is also nothing to do with your church giving, nor instead of it. I’m personally a tither and believe very much in giving to churches. This is different. As I turn 65 years old, I have so much to be thankful for, and I guess I will start new traditions of #Giving. “It is more blessed to give than to receive...” With appreciation and warm greetings to leadership and staff across all our companies, and to all our partners, customers, and friends. Happy New Year! Image credit: KWB - Ubuntu Hope via Gemini Nano Banana Pro #InspiredToChangeYourWorld #SolutionSeekers #GrowingAfricaTogether

One thing I loved about Joshua Nkomo was that a man who was then in his late seventies and early eighties was so willing to have an open mind and learn new things that were so different from what he had previously believed. This weekend I thought I'd share some reflections about someone who was very dear to me. It's been 20 years now since we established the Joshua Nkomo scholarship programme for gifted students in Zimbabwe, in his honour. We are expanding it this year.

Today I want to share that I am a proud parent of an emerging global #Fashionpreneur who, after three years of intensive research and development, has just launched her company and first luxury womenswear collection, AMAYI. Although I admit I don't know much about women's fashion or her line of business at all, I’m proud of how seriously my daughter Joanna M. has approached her business: not just as a creative, but as a founder building systems, strategy, and long-term vision: "A future-vintage luxury house built on scarcity, craft, and cultural memory… reframing fashion from seasonal consumption to collecting.” You can read more about Joanna's business model and entrepreneurial journey in the article below which includes links to her SubStack blog and AMAYI website. Image caption: AMAYI means "mother" in our home language. Joanna says her muse is her own mother, a reminder that lineage, learning, and legacy all shape the businesses we build. Please note, I'm not writing to ask anyone to buy garments from AMAYI. Simply sharing this happy family news here so we can celebrate and support one another!

One of the biggest challenges so far for African governments wanting to use AI to improve service delivery to citizens is lack of data digitisation. In countries around the world, in fact, historical government records and documents often remain in paper form... kept in file cabinets, piled on desks, stored in boxes or in archives, whilst information located on electronic devices or servers is often disorganised or siloed. We already help governments and large companies digitise and label their data. In Africa, it will have to happen on a massive scale, and it’s actually an opportunity to create jobs for young people. Do you know how much of your own business data has been digitised? You can start right there! Data readiness is critical for your organisation. If you don't know, for example, what I mean by terms like "structured" and "unstructured" data, look it up. It's critical to know. Next you need to take the step of moving into the #Cloud, if you've not already done so. Most African books, including those used in primary and secondary schools, as well as books written in local languages, are not yet available in digital form. This means they still cannot be used with AI platforms. This is an opportunity for some of you to get into AI. Why not follow up with local publishers and ensure that they create digital versions of all this material?  The more your country’s information is digitised from paper records [history, culture, news, etc.] the more it’s able to enter the digital AI age. Don’t complain about #Bias and lack of accurate information about your country when nearly everything sits in documents that are not digitised! By now, I expect most of you understand that if we do not build Large Language Models (LLMs) trained in African languages with credible, high-quality datasets sourced in Africa - we will not be able to counter "algorithmic #Bias" and cultural dominance. I really should not have to spell that out, should I? Two young entrepreneurs in Nigeria co-founded an AI company in 2019 called Awarri that is training LLMs in several local languages, among many cutting-edge #innovations they’re working on. Check it out here: https://www.awarri.com/ Awarri is one of at least a dozen companies I've heard about. In doing this, they are recording the languages, even from rural people. In effect, they're preserving these languages for future generations! You have heard how many AI models have struggled to identify black people or Westernize their features; this is because they were developed and trained in Western culture and languages. What is our solution? We can complain, or we can use the “Masiyiwa way”… Train our OWN AI models to recognise our OWN languages, images, places of interest, literature, cultures, histories! Yeoh!! Wake up and smell the coffee! Come on @LionCubs! [as I call young entrepreneurs on my FB platform] We have no time to waste. Image credit: KWB - Ubuntu Hope via Gemini Nano Banana Pro

When I lived in South Africa, a white South African colleague who was very compassionate came to me for some advice: “My gardener who had been with me for a long time recently died," he explained. "His relatives have asked for assistance to pay for his burial in his home country. Why can’t they bury him here, given that he has lived here for decades, and besides, it’s very expensive to repatriate a body," he sighed. "What is your advice?” “Please help them. It’s important for that man’s family, and it shows your own humanity," I replied gently. He did as I suggested. The bereaved family's "problem" is one that some of you may have experienced yourselves: the costs of a funeral and burial can lead to near total impoverishment for some families and relatives. Hearing this, the philanthropist in me demanded from the entrepreneur in me... a #Solution. “What if we could create an insurance product whereby people pay a small monthly subscription which covers the cost of a funeral?” My solution was a #Product we called EcoSure which does just that: Customers take out a policy that can be as basic as funeral costs, or may even include cash payouts to cover the first few months after the loss of a breadwinner. Today it is a business with millions of customers.   Now sometimes people who I respect mention various problems they see deeply impacting people, or the environment in which they live. I generally listen carefully, and again... sometimes the philanthropist in me wants the #Entrepreneur in me to find a solution. This can include putting a team together to do research and explore business models. For those of you in the #JuniorClass who don't yet know what I mean by "business model," here's a link to get the year started: https://lnkd.in/eQ5Epsk9 Will it work? Of course, I don’t always know. But we all must apply our entrepreneurial #Mindset to try to find solutions, using whatever is in our hands. This is what #SinkYourBucket is all about.   It’s time to stop thinking that someone else is coming to solve our problems.  Listen carefully, and with kindness, too. #AfricanInnovation #SolutionSeekers #EntrepreneurIt Image credit: With thanks to Zaheer Ali of South Africa for his special photo posted on Touch the Heart Facebook page in October 2025. What do YOU see? [Sometimes the solution is #SocialEntrepreneurship!] https://lnkd.in/e5jT_9pW

Although I know most of you here are seasoned professionals, I decided to reshare an article today that I wrote more than 10 years ago. Back then, I posted it for the young aspiring African entrepreneurs on my Facebook platform, but it seems equally relevant now, and not just for our young students, scholars, and entrepreneurs. #StayFocused #StayStrong #BePrepared "People often talk about lack of time when lack of direction is the problems". - Zig Ziglar Image caption: Eye of the tiger! Siberian tigers are an endangered species from Asia, not Africa, but most of you know they are strategic, patient hunters with excellent vision and focus.

#BreakingNews As I write, I’m just about to depart Cape Town, where I was a Keynote Speaker at this year's Africa Tech Festival, the continent's biggest annual telecoms and technology event. Before I am wheels up, I wanted to share the news here that Google announced today it has selected Cassava Technologies to be its strategic partner to roll out Google Gemini across Africa, saying: "Looking ahead, a shared vision drives our partnership: democratizing AI for millions across Africa’s rapidly digitizing economies". Here's a link to a Google article released today to find out more: https://lnkd.in/eu5RUQhC I also wanted to share part of a video recorded by Josh Woodward [Global VP, Google Labs and the Gemini app] for our Cassava AI Factory keynote presentation today, sharing this breaking news. We also heard from several of our other remarkable global and African partners and colleagues, but will write about it all later [when I am not boarding a flight]. #LeavingNoAfricanBehind #SolutionSeekers

Many of you know Professor Benedict Oramah, former President and Chairman of the Board of African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), who completed his 10-year term earlier this week. As I share in this reflection article below, I have known Prof for 30 years now. When we first met, he was the Chief Analyst at a pioneering new multilateral finance institution... and I was a young entrepreneur in the early days of launching my telecoms start-up in Harare. Since then, Prof Oramah has been tireless, traveling to virtually every African country to help both governments and entrepreneurs access funding, as he rose in the ranks to lead Afreximbank. Salute to you Prof, for all you have done for the continent, for your whole career. Congratulations also to incoming President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Dr George Elombi who I came to know very well when we worked together on the COVID crisis. A tenacious lawyer as head of Legal, George was one of the unsung heroes during the pandemic when Afreximbank played such a critical role supporting our continent. Image credit: Africa Debate, July 2025, where Prof was honoured by Invest Africa Ltd with the 2025 Visionary Leadership Award for 30+ years of impact, championing African-led solutions across trade, industrialisation, and health. Also pictured is Invest Africa Executive Chair, Karen Taylor.

There is a story told about a group of explorers who were sailing from Europe to South America in the days of wind-driven ships. When suddenly the wind died, their ship stopped moving and they spent days without water. They were dying of thirst when they saw another ship sailing towards them and quickly sent a signal using flags: “Water!” The other ship signaled back: “Sink your bucket!” then turned away without helping them! Why? Unbeknownst to them, they were in fact sailing into the mouth of the Amazon River which was fresh [drinkable] water! As an entrepreneur, it is all about having the right #Mindset to look at the opportunities presented by the very challenges you are trying to navigate. This year’s message from me is “SINK YOUR BUCKET”! This sea of problems you are seeing also contains the greatest #Opportunities just gift-wrapped with your name on them! I cannot count the number of times this has happened to me. Almost every time I have a problem, I force myself to look at it with the eyes of an #Entrepreneur and suddenly, it’s right there! Why don’t you share your own experiences here with others about how YOU found the #Solution in the problem you thought you had? Let’s turn this into a principle for 2026: #SinkYourBucket ! You’ll also want to sit down with your team and have them put together a list of “Sink your bucket” ideas for this year. Ask them and ask yourself: "What would you do if you weren't afraid?" - Sheryl Sandberg Onward! #InspireInnovation #SolutionSeekers #EntrepreneurIt #WhatIsInYourHand? "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes”. - Marcel Proust Image credit: KWB - Ubuntu Hope via AI

Last week, Cassava Technologies announced another very important partnership, this one with The Rockefeller Foundation, to work together to expand and enable access to AI compute for African not-for-profit organisations, especially those focused on AI-enabled solutions in education, health, and agriculture. Collaborations like this with key stakeholders and partners are critically important to ensure Africans are not just Consumers of AI, but #Builders of it. #SolutionCreators and #CoCreators! Some of our local partners include Digital Green [helping farmers access real-time agricultural advice at 100x lower cost]; Jacaranda Health [working to save mothers' lives with AI tools in native African languages]; and Rising Academies  [helping children in rural Rwanda access the same quality education as those in urban areas]. It was only about two years ago when Andrew Sweet, in his new position at The Rockefeller Foundation, traveled Silicon Valley with me and some team members, holding remarkable meetings together with AI labs, innovators, academics, and cutting-edge AI companies. Fast forward to today... Here's a link to our 18 November press statement: https://lnkd.in/evk7hz6G If you're a Bloomberg subscriber, here's another important article on last week's news: https://lnkd.in/eSttM_wN #AcceleratingOpportunitiesTogether #AfricanAISolutions  #AfricanDataSovereignty #LeavingNoAfricanBehind #GrowingAfricanInnovation  #BuildingSharedProsperity Image credit: Pregnant women and new moms ask questions, and PROMPTS responds. Photo courtesy of Jacaranda Health [message would be in local African languages, too]. https://lnkd.in/eK-M5AE9

The AI Impact Summit in New Delhi last week (16–21 February) was unlike anything we've seen before: 118 countries represented, 500,000+ participants, 59 ministerial participants, 20+ heads of state or government, and at least 500 leading global AI experts. By any measure, it was the largest AI gathering in human history. It was also a landmark moment for the Global South, the first time a developing nation has hosted the defining AI policy conversation of our era, and done so on its own terms, with India establishing itself not merely as a consumer of global AI advancements but as a sovereign architect of intelligence designed to serve one-sixth of humanity. I had planned to attend the Summit but a scheduling conflict unexpectedly arose, so our Cassava Technologies participation was led by top CEOs in our global leadership team, Ahmed El Beheiry and Oswald Jumira. Whilst in India, they took the opportunity to visit our Cassava Technologies office in Pune. Led by our Group CTIO Shahzad Manzoor Khan (who has worked globally in key roles at Liquid since the earliest days) our local Indian staff has now grown to over 140 AI, Cloud, Cyber Security, and Connectivity engineers focused on driving professional and managed services for our One Cassava product strategy across our global markets. As other big AI companies are setting up bases in India, we've been there since 2019! We’re also looking to grow within the market. Beyond the scale of the Summit, what stood out from India is their local startups' focus on developing “last mile” AI use cases that relate to their people and society (healthcare, agriculture, education, financial services, e-Gov, etc). The results presented across sectors were remarkable: sovereign AI infrastructure developed at national scale, AI adoption programs embedded across both government and the private sector, and a digital transformation agenda that’s being executed, not just planned. India is also pursuing aggressive AI skills development, which is in turn attracting global AI and technology companies to the country to set up global delivery centres. OpenAI, for example, has opened an office; Google is investing in AI infrastructure; Ambani and Adani have committed to spending billions on compute and AI data centres... the list goes on. Africa, take note. This is precisely the kind of bold, comprehensive, nationally owned approach to AI integration that our continent must embrace, and do so responsibly with due care for what remains unknown. The window is open, but it will not stay open indefinitely... We cannot afford to be late again. #AfricanInnovators #OneCassavaSolutions #LeavingNoAfricanBehind #IndiaAIImpactSummit #AI4All

I once read somewhere that “a battle plan is only as good as your first contact with the enemy”. I immediately paraphrased it to say, “A business plan is only as good as your first contact with a customer who is willing to pay".    Mike Tyson had a more brutal assessment: “Everyone has a plan on how they are going to fight me, until I punch them in the face...”   Whenever we are developing a new product or business, something we are doing all the time, the most exciting thing for me is not the “idea” but when I see someone actually #Paying their hard-earned money to #Buy it!   Yoh! @LionCub, that's what this is about... Watching your #Solution come to life, then #Fly off the shelves.   I have learnt over the years that good ideas are really a dime a dozen. [There are actually more good ideas out there than bad ones].    __The real issue is turning an idea into a #Product that someone else is not just willing but eager to #Buy, and even better, #BuyAgain!   This calls for a healthy dose of humility at times. The fact is, sometimes entrepreneurs like you and me have these amazing ideas, yet customers are simply not willing to buy!   I remember one customer said to me, “I love your product, but I don’t think I should pay for it. Can you find a way to make it free?”   I felt like I had entered the ring with Mike Tyson at that moment!   Now of course Mark Zuckerberg figured that one out, and it’s harder than it looks. But he is very smart, a generational type entrepreneur.   For me, when I heard that, it was about humbly "going back to the drawing board"... not disappointed but encouraged that the glass was half-full and not half-empty.    But there have been other times when such an experience has led me to find truly remarkable #Solutions for customers who are happy to pay repeatedly.   Will your idea really fly?   Looking back at my own ideas, I don’t know a single product or business that looks anything like what I originally conceived before listening to customers. You might say I’m not that smart, but I make up for it by being persistent and willing to change and be flexible without losing the main objective.   What is the real lesson here?   If you think you have a great idea, think again... You probably haven’t even started the hard part yet!    Let’s talk after you have taken some punches to your face... which is guaranteed to happen if you don't do your market research and get to know all about your intended customer! Remember: The fact that someone thinks a product is great, does NOT mean they are willing to pay for it!   “The one who puts on armour to go into battle should not boast to one who is taking off armour after battle”...   #KnowYourCustomer   As Sam Walton said, "If you don't listen to your customer, someone else will". Image caption: Mike Tyson’s “first fight” actually took place when he was about age 9 after a bully brutally killed one of his beloved pigeons.