Billionaire Jack Ma visits Kigali from 19^th to 21^st July for the Africa Youth Connekt Summit. This visit comes just four months after H.E President Paul Kagame paid an official visit to his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping in Beijing in which their meeting agreed to scale up cooperation between their two countries.

During the visit to Kigali, Mr. Jack Ma was accompanied by a score of fellow billionaires from China and a delegation from Alibaba group. The Alibaba executive chairman made a number of announcements aimed at supporting education, e-commerce and conservation in Rwanda. He pledged to support domestic and cross-border e-commerce in Africa as a means of economic development and to create a training program with UNCTAD. The billionaire invited 200 young African entrepreneurs to Alibaba’s campus in Hanghzou to study e-commerce so they can return to Africa to develop e-businesses as well as teach those skills to other young, aspiring business owners.

Ma told the Youth Connekt Summit participants “I want to show my confidence in Africa... So I start with my foundation to Africa entrepreneurship fund to support young entrepreneurs to realize their dreams,”

During the closing panel that included President Paul Kagame, Jack Ma and Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UNCTAD, President Kagame made a listing of key priorities where free movement between Africans is on top of the list.

“No African in this room should go through the hassle of visa applications to learn from or do business with fellow Africans,” President Kagame said. 

Allowing free movement for Africans within Africa is also about Africa integration, President Kagame added. Rwanda is among a few countries on African countries that provide visa at entry for all Africans.

ENDS.