“If you are doing something that you really love, it is not work.”- Barclay Paul Okari
“What keeps you going [as an entrepreneur] is the need to see your idea come to fruition.”- Kwame Abrokwa
“African youth - there will not be the expected growth without your dreams. You need to create your job. In the DNA of Africans, the entrepreneurship gene is there.”- Karl Miville de Chene
“Let’s do everything to make sure youth are key stakeholders and are included.”- Michaëlle Jean
“Europe needs to do more in Africa so that African students can return to help their countries of origin.”- José Manuel Barroso
“The country cannot develop without you. Each of you has the opportunity to reach and accomplish your dreams. The continent of Africa is the continent of the future.”- H.E. Ali Bongo Ondimba
“Africa’s strong economic growth (5 percent) is thanks to its youth, which will be the main source of production and innovation in the coming years.”- Lionel Zinsou
“Talent does not exist everywhere. The only difference between countries is access. Without having access, nothing will happen.”- Garry Kasparov
“African women have arrived.”- Isabel dos Santos
“There’s a preconceived idea on Africa which is totally obsolete. Africa is now the future.”- Laurent Fabius
“Ambition is a key factor in transformation. The will to transform a country has to be accompanied by action”- Hafid Elalami
“All the research shows that investing in women is a good investment”- Cherie Blair
“The 21st century is the century of Africa.”- Vincente Fox
“This Forum is a perfect example of Gabon's engagement as a future-thinking country, searching for innovative solutions to the challenges facing Africa in its economic growth.”- Alassane Ouattara
“Africa is now open to all investors. Its leaders are willing to preserve the continent’s resources and willing to engage in a win-win partnership.”- Macky Sall
“Together, we want to encourage young women to venture into new frontiers, and learn that they can achieve anything.”- Sylvia Bongo Ondimba
“Technology is spurring innovation, and the so-called "demographic dividend" has brought change.”- Nouriel Roubini
“We Africans must do business with each other.”- President F.W. de Klerk
“We need to have a competitive economy and proper legal environment to create enterprise, which in turn creates jobs.”- Jean-Louis Billon
“We need peace for security but we also need justice and accountability.”- Fatou Bensouda
“Given technology in tough environments, people will do more with that technology than its engineers could have ever imagined.”- Jared Cohen
“You look at Africa the biggest impediment is our not being able to work together. It’s very simple.”- Kola Karim
“If you get the politics and the policies right, the economics usually follow.”- Lord Mandelson
“The G.D.P. of african countries has been rising swiftly, but we must take into account issues like access to water supply, education, healthcare, infrastructure and employment.”- Olusegun Obasanjo

ABOUT THE FORUM

The business and political leaders that will gather in Libreville at the end of August 2015 will engage in intense, collaborative sessions to draw up a road map – for individual businesses as well as national policy-makers – as a spur to action. The New York Forum AFRICA 2015 will build on previous years’ discussions to focus on the concrete measures that will be needed to drive Africa’s transformation in its next stage of development. You can read the policy recommendations from 2014 here.

The New York Forum AFRICA is the only pan-African business summit to be held in Africa in 2015.

Gabon is also the host nation for the 14^th AGOA Forum (to be held at the same time as the NYFA in Libreville) - the first time the Forum will be held in Central Africa. AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act) was signed into law by President Clinton to expand and deepen trade and investment relations between Sub-Saharan Africa and the United States, and to encourage economic growth and development. Having the two events together will increase the scope of the NYFA’s discussions, giving participants access to an unprecedented level of US public sector officials and CEOs.

MARKETPLACE AND INNOVATION VILLAGE

The Marketplace, traditionally the gathering point of the NYFA where meetings are booked with participants and exhibitors from the private and public sector, will be extended in 2015 to feature a Village of Innovation, building on the success of our inaugural Money Talks session at NYFA 2014, where one inventor secured investment live on stage. A carefully curated selection of African start-ups, each with an invention that has the power to bring about significant change, will be invited to showcase their work to participants in the Marketplace. And in another first, we will announce the winners of the African Start-up of the Year awards.

ABOUT THE FORUM

MARKETPLACE AND INNOVATION VILLAGE

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