Today, what I want to share with you is something that happened to me, actually, around four weeks ago. It happened I words were said to me, but I never  thought I would ever hear said to my face by another human being. And those  words, they shattered my heart, and at the same time, they filled it with so much  hope, and the whole experience renewed my commitment to the idea that I  came to share with you today. You see, I tell everyone, but I am a haunted  person. What haunts me is impossible stories, story after story after story after  story of young people, my people, people like me, dying out there on the ocean  right now, laying at the bottom of the ocean, serving as fish food. Do you really  think that's the best we can do to serve as fish food? And for those of them who  are trying to migrate to Europe, because that's what it is all about. We're trying  to migrate to Europe to find it migrate to Europe to find a job going through  Libya. Do you know what happens to us when we're trying to cross for Libya?  We're trapped over there? Well, we're being sold as slaves for $300 maybe  sometimes $500 I sometimes I hear stories of bodies that fall off an airplane,  somebody hid in the landing gear of a plane, or in the cargo section of a plane,  and then you find them frozen to death. Wouldn't you be haunted if, like me,  from the moment you were a little girl, you hear these stories, and they keep  repeating themselves over and over and over, wouldn't you be haunted? That's  my case. And at the same time, you know, as my people are dying, my culture is also dying, they're excited because, you know, we have this cultural and priority,  which means that anything that comes from us is not good enough. But you  know, in my situation, and because I was raised to criticize by creating it's  Michelangelo's my father said, do not come to me with problems unless you  fought a couple alternatives. They don't have to be right. But I just want to know  what you thought of something. So I have this attitude in life, something is  wrong, find a way to fix it. And that's why I start the businesses that I start.  There's usually consumer brands, but have embedded in them the very best of  my African culture. And what I do is it's all packaged 21st century, world class  tendered, and I bring that to one of the most sophisticated markets in the in the  United in the world, which is the US. First Company was a beverage company.  Second one is a skincare company. Third one is launching next month, and they all have that in common. So why are these people leaving? They're leaving  because they have no jobs. They're leaving because where they are there is no  jobs. So, but poverty that's really striking them is at the cause, root cause of why they're leaving now. Why are people poor? People are poor because they have  no money. You have no money because you have no source of income. And for  most of us, what is a source of income? For most of us, what is our source of  income? What is it? Tell me, jobs. Thank you. Where do jobs come from? Come  from? Where businesses Thank you. Now, if jobs is what fixes poverty and jobs  come from businesses, don't you think especially they come from small and  medium sized enterprises, SMEs, then don't you think maybe for a second that 

we should focus on making it easy for a small business person to start and run  their business. Don't you think that it makes sense? Why is it that when I look at  the doing business index ranking of a World Bank that ranks every country in the world as in terms of how easy or hard it is to start a company, you tell me why  African countries, all 50 of them are basically at the bottom of that list. That's  why we're poor. We're poor because it is literally impossible to do businesses in  these countries of ours. But I tell you exactly what it means on the ground  someone like me, you know, I have a manufacturing facility in Senegal. Did you  know that for all my raw material that I can't find in the country, I have to pay a  45% tariff on everything that comes in. 45% tariff. Do you know that even to look for fine cardboards to ship my finished products to the US, I can't find new  finished cardboards? Impossible. Why? Because. Guys are not going to come  here to start their business, but you know, the distributors, because it makes no  sense either. So right now I have to mobilize $3,000 worth of cardboards in my  warehouse so that I can have cardboard. And by the way, they won't arrive for  another five weeks. The fact that we are stifled with the most non senseless  laws out there, that's why we can't run businesses swimming through molasses.  So today, today. So what can you do about that? You know, I told you today that  someone said to me words that marked me. The words were because I  explained the same thing to my employees in Senegal, and one of them started  crying. Her name is Yahara. She started crying. And I said, Why are you crying?  She said, I'm crying because I never I had come to believe always seeing us  represented as poor people. I had come to believe that maybe, yes, maybe we  are inferior, because otherwise, how do you explain that we're always in the  begging situation? That's what broke my heart. But at the same time that she  said that, because of how I explained just what I explained to you, she said, but  now I know that I am not the problem. It is my environment in which I live. That's my problem. I said yes, and that's what gave me hope that once people get it,  they now change their outlook on life. Here, what are some of our solutions?  Then, if jobs is a solution and we need a good Don't you think then, but we  should be simplifying the business environment of all of these countries, don't  you think? And along with you, I would like for all of your friends from the other  50 countries that are the bottom of that list to do the same thing you do that we  do the rest of the job I'm doing my part of the game. What are you doing? What  are you doing? What are you doing? And as for you, everybody here in this  room, I leave you with two marching orders, get in the game. And the way you  get in it is educate yourself, build awareness around yourself, around yourself,  and then also advocate for E Government Solutions. He said, Oh, corruption.  How do we fight corruption? Well, as a matter of fact, I'm here to tell you but  yes, you can do it by the stroke of a pen. You do not need anyone to tell you  when and how to do that. It is one thing, actually, but you don't need to wait for  anyone to do so. Do it otherwise. Don't come and tell me that you want to fix 

corruption. You and your other 50 friends from the other 50 countries that are  bottom of that list. That's how you fight corruption, because corruption happens  if you were only charging me 5% to get my stuff in the country, my raw material,  instead of 45% Do you really think that I would have to go and pay a bribe?  That's what breeds corruption. Bad laws, sets of horrible nonsense laws, right?  So, you want to fight corruption, that's what you do. And again, remember I told  you you don't need to wait for anyone. You can do that by yourself, unless you're telling me that maybe you have no sovereignty. And then that's a whole nother  problem, isn't it? Okay? So, so from here on, I have simple words for our  leaders. This will this can go two ways. It can go the nasty way, because we  have hundreds of millions of young people coming to life right now here, and if  you do not, if they don't have an outlook in life, they are going to go for a  revolution. They're going to go for violence. And none of that. None of us wants  that, None None of us. So that's the one way it can go. Or the second way it can go is all this happens peacefully, productively, and everything is good. And you  do what you need to do. You get out of my way. You let people like me do our  job. We create all the jobs we need, and then everybody Africa becomes this  very prosperous country that is designed to be. It should have been for a long  time. It happens like that. Everybody's happy. We move on with our lives. Can  Happen two ways. Pick violence, or you pick the comproductive way. I want a  comproductive way. None of us should ever, ever even try to think about what  else could happen if we don't go there. So please, and the time has come this  type of picture, prosperity, happiness, human flourishing. That's what I see, if we do our job. Thank you. 



Last modified: Thursday, April 3, 2025, 8:22 AM