Full Speech During At Black, Asian, And Minority Ethnic ( BAME ) Conference
Antony Karanja (00:08:32): So the topic of discussion today was quite an interesting one because the reason, again, how a business should accelerate the opportunities and inclusion of the black, Asian, minority ethnic communities into their core business and beyond. Antony Karanja (00:08:47): So a good point to start on was, for me, the death of George Floyd. But now just looking at it from the retrospective view, where we saw about 65 years ago Emmett Till went through the same thing, and it triggered some reaction, which has somehow helped people out to have a certain view, a new view on how what racism looked like. Antony Karanja (00:09:18):
And now we have, 65 years later we have the same. We have now a video that we can put to. We can peg on what racism looks like. Now, looking at it, I wanted to interlink that with the fact that there are a few reports in the United States that have been released most recently as last year, showing that by 2032, there are going to be the majority of the working class in the United States are going to be people of color.
Antony Karanja (00:09:52): Now, imagine you have in the United States, but yet you have to show this burden which is not naturally a burden and shouldn’t be a burden, but it is a burden inflicted to me by other people because people choose to view you from what you look and judge you from the color of your skin but not rather from the content of your character or what you can offer with regards to human capital development. Antony Karanja (00:10:22): In business, human capital development can never go in line with us looking at the color.
We look at the capacity building of a person. We look at the ability of how one is able to deliver on certain projects, what they can do for the company, their effectiveness on a couple of things. And for you to entrust them with that management, it means that they don’t have to go through this ordeal of have [inaudible 00:10:48].
Antony Karanja (00:10:49): Economic inclusion should be the pedestal upon which this reality is brought to life. And we need to understand that that means we’ve got to build robust economic infrastructures which will ensure that there is equal access to economic opportunities to everyone regardless of their ethnicity, regardless of where they come from, their [inaudible 00:11:08] positioning. Antony Karanja (00:11:09): And now this further boils down to human capital development.
We’ve got to build the capacity of the people who are getting into the job markets, who are currently in the job markets but have a skill set which may necessarily be wiped out within the next 10 years, and just equip them with new skills so that they’re able to help us realize now the next stage of development.
Antony Karanja (00:11:38): And most especially, from the African context, if you look at Africa at large, is that we have a unique opportunity right now because most of the countries in the continent are developing. And we have the ability to leapfrog some of the processes which the First World went through.
Antony Karanja (00:11:56): So a quick example would be we didn’t really have the old computers here. We got into more advanced. We didn’t really start at the very beginning point, which means if we are able to overlook things like pollution with regards to just embracing green technology and going directly to systems that work, this will ensure that we have economic systems that work for the people and economic systems that don’t necessarily have to go through the process of development.
Antony Karanja (00:12:30): Again, so we can move from the Second Industrial Revolution to the Fourth Industrial Revolution and realise the true African dream, which is an Africa where everybody has got access to basic human rights and we are able to move the conversation forward from there. And the youth are a very important appendage to the realization of this dream.
Antony Karanja (00:12:58): So at The Youth Cafe, we have a specific focus on just wanting to help further develop their capacity. We do capacity building, so we have instances where we are now trying to bring onboard an incubation and acceleration program that is going to ensure that at the end of the day, we are able to help businesses that are being started by young people, young women, even between the age of 18 and 35, and they’re able to grow those businesses maybe twofold, threefold, thus creating two or three business opportunities for each business, two or three employment opportunities for people. And now that is going to help people develop.
Antony Karanja (00:13:47): Another key statistic that I should quote is really rad. There was last year a study was done about venture, the venture funds that come into the African continent and most especially the East African region. It was 90% of the total venture capital fund that came out from abroad, went into white-run start-ups. So we become a minority in our own certain because we don’t have that access to funding. And this can easily, easily be swayed off if we just build systems that sort of bridge the gap.
Antony Karanja (00:14:32): If we have people in the United States who are willing to start funds that are going to directly just come benefit black-owned African businesses, we’ll be able to move on to the next thing.
For full audio visit BAME AUDIO.
Antony Karanja W. Research, Project Design & Development at The Youth Café.
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