By Iddi Yire, GNA
Accra, Oct. 1, GNA - Madam Anne Sophie Avè, the French Ambassador to Ghana, has called on young African leaders to network and share ideas tailored towards addressing challenges within the continent.
Madam Avè, who said networking was one of the positive forces that triggered success, also underscored the need for them to have a rapport among themselves, as well as young global leaders, with the vision and influence to drive positive change.
Madam Avè said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra, during a cocktail event held on the sidelines of the French-African Leaders Seminar in Ghana.
At the event, the Ambassador hosted 32 French-African Young Leaders, an initiative launched by the French-African Foundation, which aims at putting together French young leaders with African young leaders.
Madam Avè said the initiative is in line with the new way France wants to partner with Africa, beyond aid.
She said Africa is rising and there is a lot to do with Africa, adding that “there are areas in which Africa is far ahead of us [Europe]; if you look at Kenya and the digital mobile money, they are far ahead of us”.
The Ambassador, who told GNA that investing in Africa meant investing in the future, also described Africa as the big power of tomorrow as it kept rising.
Madam Avè said that there would not be a strong Europe without a strong Africa and expressed the hope that in the next decade Africa would be a counterpart, a stronger partner to Europe.
Madam Yvonne Mburu, Co-founder of French-African Foundation, also told GNA that the foundation was launched this year, with an objective of contributing to the emergence of a new generation of leaders who will address the most important issues, today.
She said these include climate change, poverty, demographic growth and economic growth.
She said among themselves there is to call on how to contribute to this new change makers, so they selected 32 young leaders out of over 2000 applicants; these were invited to Paris in July and are currently in Accra.
“The reason is because we are under high patronage of the French President and the Ghanaian President, she said.
Madam Mburu said that the purpose of the visit was to highlight Accra to the ecosystem of the French and African partners and to talk about Ghana’s dynamism, Ghana’s history and Ghana’s future.
She said essentially this was to talk about how they could get the youth to be involved in decision making; in contributing to decisions that were made, because they are the ones going to live in this future that was being constructed.
Madam Mburu said the purpose of the group and the programme was to bring together people who are proposing solutions for today and tomorrow to help build a better continent and a better world.
GNA
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