President
Barack Obama with co-founders of the Global SPARK coalition, Jonathan
Ortmans, CEO of the Global Entrepreneurship Network; Tony O. Elumelu,
CON, Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation; and Sriram Bharatam, Chairman, Africa Growth Initiative, (EO); during the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, over the weekend.
An
impressive collection of organizations have come together to answer
President Barack Obama’s call at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit
yesterday in Nairobi, Kenya, to advance entrepreneurship and economic
growth around the world.
Representatives
of the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN), Entrepreneurs’
Organization (EO) and Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) participated in a
formal signing ceremony at the Summit, committing to lead the Spark
Global Entrepreneurship initiative. Spark is a coalition that is seeking
to mobilize like-minded organizations, companies and investors that
collectively generate more than $1 billion dollars in private investment
for emerging entrepreneurs by the end of 2017.
“The
world is full of nascent entrepreneurs with brilliant ideas—but they
need stronger ecosystems to help them unleash those ideas and grow them
into game-changing startups,” said Jonathan Ortmans, president of Global
Entrepreneurship Network and one of three Spark coalition co-chairs.
“Spark increases coordination and collaboration among startup support
programs and amplifies their efforts.”
The
first wave of companies that have stepped forward include Citi, EY, GE,
Google and IBM. Two African companies, Rendeavour, the continent’s
largest urban land developer, and SkyPower, the largest provider of
utility-scale solar power projects in the world, have joined as well.
“African
entrepreneurship has been the missing link in Africa’s development. The
actions of just one entrepreneur sends ripples across a community and
entrepreneurship lifts people permanently out of poverty and creates
social wealth,” said Tony Elumelu, founder of the Tony Elumelu
Foundation. “We all know entrepreneurship, anywhere in the world, is not
easy nor is success guaranteed. All stakeholders – the private sector,
governments, NGOs and donors – must make a commitment to use their
respective powers to address the hurdles facing African entrepreneurs.
That is what Spark is all about.”
Spark taps into the growing involvement of government programs in helping entrepreneurs start and scale new firms.
U.S.
Vice President Joseph Biden announced the Spark initiative at the 2014
Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Morocco and outlined the commitments
of some of the most active and effective U.S. government programs such
as the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship, Young
African Leaders Initiative, African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program and
more.
Spark
is asking for commitments from organizations and individuals willing to
“start the spark” by collaborating and contributing resources,
networks, data and ideas to multiply efforts and help founders start and
scale new firms.
“We
are excited to leverage our in-market presence in nearly 50 countries
to support Spark, inspire today’s entrepreneurs and foster the next
generation globally,” said Vijay K. Tirathrai, CEO of Entrepreneurs’
Organization. “Our organization provides numerous platforms to bring
entrepreneurs together for enhanced learning and leadership growth.
Spark is a natural extension of our commitment and we call on others to
join us and affect positive change through entrepreneurial support.”
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