“Serious people laughed at me when I told them I wanted to build a telecommunications network in Africa twenty years ago. They told me all the reasons the project would never succeed,” Mo Ibrahim recalls of the reaction he got when he shared his plans to build a pan-African mobile phone company 20 years ago. “Somehow I just kept thinking, I know there are challenges but why can’t they see the opportunity?”

Jonathan Oppenheimer, Executive Chairman of Oppenheimer Generations, announced a partnership with the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance during the fifth biennial Harambeans Rome Forum held at the Vatican in September. Oppenheimer Generations represents the global interests of Nicky and Jonathan Oppenheimer.

The Harambean community gathered at the Vatican in September for its fifth biennial forum to reaffirm its pledge to work together as one to build Africa’s future. The event brought together Harambeans and Guilds, the network of investors, experts and founding partners that make up the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance. The three-day gathering included a blessing for Harambeans in the Vatican Gardens and a thanksgiving dinner at the Pope’s summer residence.

Yoo and de Wysocki reflect on the missed opportunities engendered by the lack of early-stage investments in Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and Cisco’s attempts to bridget this gap through its partnership with Harambeans, giving early stage entrepreneurs a chance to succeed.

Irene Pritzker, President and CEO of the IDP Foundation, through a partnership with the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance, has helped African innovators secure more than $8 million from investors to scale their start-up ventures.

Jeremy Johnson and his co-founders at Andela understood that talent was equally distributed, and questioned why opportunity was not. He expounds on the principles of entrepreneurship that allow for true innovation and growth highlighting that most paramount to any startup journey is the non-existence of a blueprint.