By Ade Jacobs
The Managing Director of the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistic Base, LADOL, Dr. Amy Jadesimi, has urged the private sector of African countries to embrace the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as template for new business models.
She made the call while making a presentation at a Women Working for Change (WFC) virtual summit on Thursday.
Jadesimi was one of the speakers at the event titled “Coming Out on Top of the Crisis: Towards a More Sustainable Growth Model”.
Other speakers included the acting Managing Director of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Stephanie Von Friedburg and Manon Karamoko, Chief Executive Officer, Unilever Cote d’Ivoire, among others.
Jadesimi said, “African private sector is largely unencumbered by legacy non-sustainable businesses and investments. This means that these African companies are set to flourish if they build businesses with new economic sustainable plans and targets.
“There is now no doubt that sustainability equals profitability, as proven in the Business and Sustainable Development Commission’s (BSDC) publication, ‘Better Business Better World’, launched in 2016.
The BSDC’s report identified USD 12 trillion in market opportunities for companies that focused on sustainable business models.
“The demographics of Africa offer a substantial opportunity for global wealth creation. However, we should recognise that the playing field is still tipped against local private companies.
“Organisations and investors that want to grow with and benefit from job and wealth creation in Africa, while ensuring that Africa industrialises sustainably, should ensure that they put their support and money in the hands of sustainable African companies.
“Most of the current investments/support coming into Africa now are still being channelled into large monopolies and companies that maintain the status quo,” she said.
Dr. Jadesimi also spoke on the need to remove bottlenecks against indigenous private companies whose growth was essential for continental prosperity, noting that “roughly 80 per cent of the jobs in Africa will be created by SMEs”.