The former Ghanaian president, John A. Kufuor, will take the podium on the 18th occasion of the AfDB's Eminent Speakers Program on 6 July 2012 in Tunis. The theme of the speech will be "Challenges and Opportunities of Entrepreneurship Capacity Development in Africa".

A key motivation for Mr Kufuor's choice of topic for the program is the need to take stock and reflect on important environmental, economic and other factors that are impeding the growth of African entrepreneurial firms. The need to nurture and direct developmental efforts towards start-ups, micro, small and medium size enterprises (MSMEs) is compelling. First, the role of individual and citizens led efforts at generating employment is undeniable, because of its impact in stimulating real economic growth and creating social cohesion. Second, there is the need to strengthen other sectoral platforms for entrepreneurial development among youth and women, and within the agribusiness sector.

In light of the above, careful reflections are warranted to underpin policy agenda for the prevailing challenges facing African governments. Such an agenda will aim to nurture entrepreneurial orientation in an open market. This call for coherent, integrative collaboration with development partners - regional, continental and global institutions. The focus of such collaboration would be to create, develop and share knowledge on formulating quick, well thought-out and actionable strategies, capable of addressing capacity deficiencies and stimulating entrepreneurial-led, inclusive and sustainable economic growth.

Mr Kufuor's presentation represents an opportunity for rich exchanges on how, through strengthened engagements among our tertiary institutions, the public and private sector, the prospects for achieving higher and sustained growth of start-ups and knowledge-based MSMEs can be enhanced.

Since its inception in March 2006, the AfDB Eminent Speakers Program has attracted 17 eminent global citizens who addressed almost 5,000 invited participants.