Alibaba’s Executive Chairman and Founder, Jack Ma, has announced the launch of a $10 million fund for Africa’s young entrepreneurs. The fund is in partnership the United Nations Conference of Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Speaking at the 2017 YouthConnekt Africa Summit in Kigali Rwanda, Ma said the fund will support African online businesses and will kickstart operations this year.
“The money is set. This is my money, so I don’t have to get anybody’s approval,” he said.
He also announced that he will be partnering with with UNCTAD to help bring 200 budding African entrepreneurs to China to learn from Alibaba. He also announced plans to partner with African universities to teach internet technology, artificial intelligence and e-commerce.
“Not being connected to the internet today is worse than not having electricity 100 years ago. I think e-commerce, internet, Big Data is the future. You can never stop it. You like it or don’t like it. But you will never stop it. Every time you have a technological revolution, it will kill a lot of jobs and it will create a lot of jobs. This is what history tells us,” Ma said.
In his remark, UNCTAD’s Secretary General, Mukhisa Kituyi said: “African entrepreneurs should not be asking successful businesses, ‘how can I distribute your products?’… Africans should be saying, ‘I have an idea I want to grow – how can you help me to grow it? How can you help me market it?'”.
