Changing Africa: startuppers, companies and universities compared – “L’Imprenditore”
From “L’Imprenditore” the article by Ely Szajkowicz
The Alma Mater University of Bologna is organizing a meeting on November 27 to take stock of how to create a new generation of entrepreneurs. The voice of businesses is entrusted to Giovanni Ottati, president of Confindustria Assafrica & Mediterraneo
Going to university to do business and innovation in Africa. Apparently distant worlds that dialogue together to create and give entrepreneurial training, paving the way for a next generation of entrepreneurs to do business in Africa and with Africa. The University of Bologna, companies, institutions, tutors and startuppers come together to photograph Africa that changes, with a vision consistent with 2021 trends and the actual needs of the 54 countries of the continent, aggregating data and information useful and necessary for the work of startuppers.
This is the goal of the meeting “Alma Mater with Africa – projects and partnerships for innovation and sustainable development” which takes place from Bologna on November 27 at 6.00 pm as part of the European Researchers’ Night 2020, dedicated to this year to the solutions that research can provide as a response to the 17 Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. A multi-voice talk on the continent where everything is immeasurable, from demographics to cities, from its geographical extension to the 80 thousand km of trade borders that will fall from January 1, 2021 with the entry into force of the African Continental Free Trade Zone.
On the training front in particular, Alma Mater, together with five other prestigious Italian universities is part of the “Italian Higher Education with Africa Foundation” to promote the internationalization of African universities. But the links of the University of Bologna with Africa and its action for the development of the continent come from afar, with a constant presence of over 900 students from different African countries enrolled in Alma Mater courses and consolidated relationships with more than 50 universities and institutions from 15 African states.
The meeting is built in two parts, the first of an institutional-economic framework and the second more focused on the themes of research and the role of the university with respect to the various possibilities of interaction in Africa and with Africa.
Giovanni Ottati, President of Confindustria Assafrica & Mediterraneo, will express the vision of the companies that have long chosen, with conviction, to work in Africa, also bringing the vision of a business community that has long been thinking in contrast to the stereotypes of Italian fiction on Africa, thus becoming a de facto brand ambassador of industrial Italy in Africa.
At the end of the meeting, the Prize 2019 will be delivered to the startup Bioverse Srl, awarded as part of the StudENT for Africa project, the Alma Mater program for the development of student entrepreneurship that supports the realization of innovative entrepreneurial ideas to create economic and social development in African countries.
To participate, you can register until 12 noon on 27 November on the meeting website, at the link https://eventi.unibo.it/almamater-con-africa-2020/iscrizioni.
It is also possible to access from the “Researchers’ Night” platform at the link https://notte-dei-ricercatori.sharevent.it/it-IT. Then just click on “Virtual Stands” and select “Alma Mater with Africa” for the direct link to the webinar.
