Emma Sky, director of the International Leadership Center, delivered the keynote speech at the Big Ideas Platform 2025 in Abuja, Nigeria, on Africa Day — a day which celebrates Africa’s freedom and future. The Big Ideas Platform is an annual convening of the School of Policy, Politics and Governance (SPPG), launched by Oby Ezekwesili to build a new generation of ethical and accountable African leaders to take the continent forward. 

It’s an honor to be with you today at the Big Ideas Platform on Africa Day – a day which celebrates Africa’s freedom and future.

And I want to thank my dear friend Oby Ezekwesili for inviting me and her wonderful team at the School of Politics, Policy and Governance for looking after me. It’s wonderful to be back in Nigeria.

The theme this year is “Brain Health and Mental Wellbeing”. And when I was first asked to speak to you all, I thought, “I’m not a neuroscientist, I’m not a therapist, what contribution do I have to make to this topic?”

But I do believe the well-being of an individual is deeply connected to the context in which they live, and the opportunities they have to develop to their full potential, to lead productive lives and to contribute to their society. In other words, the wellbeing of an individual is related to the wellbeing of a community, a country, a continent.

I say this as someone who has lived and worked in conflict-afflicted societies as well as societies where there is gross inequality. I recognize the effect of trauma on people’s psyches, the humiliation of living under corrupt and incompetent leaders, the frustration at the lack of justice – and the lack of opportunity.

You don’t need me to recite the woes afflicting Africa. You all know them too well…. and social media amplifies comparisons, reinforcing the perception that life is better elsewhere.

All of this causes anxiety – and mental health problems.

Every year I speak to SPPG classes. Each year it is daunting; imagine speaking to 200 Nigerians on Zoom! When I asked them which policy issue they wanted to work on, they chose food security. During the class, a large percentage of students don’t have stable access to the internet – and the power goes down.

How can we talk about a life worth living, a life worth of humanity, if people don’t have their basic needs? When basic needs remain unmet, striving for a meaningful life becomes much more difficult.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to share with you a positive vision for Africa’s future, a horizon of hope — and a pathway to possible.

By 2050, a quarter of the world’s population — 2.5 billion people — will be African.

If sub-Saharan Africa can raise its productivity growth from around 1% per year to 4% (close to India’s recent rate), by 2050 its share of world output will be 10% — and it would account for a fifth of global growth.

Just imagine if Africa makes a quicker demographic transition, expands and improves education, increases investment in infrastructure, boosts agricultural productivity and manufacturing, and encourages greater financial flows and implements the African Continental Free Trade Area.

If the free trade area became fully operational, creating a bigger single market, the World Bank reckons it could lift overall GDP by 7% by 2035 and take 40 million people out of extreme poverty.

Africa would have greater bargaining power globally.

So that’s the horizon of hope.

Now let me talk about the pathway to realize this.

Let me start by telling you: Africa’s got the human capital. Africa’s got talent.

And I share this with you from my perch as director of the Yale International Leadership Center. We run a number of programs including Yale World Fellows, Yale Climate Fellows, and Yale Peace Fellows. Around a quarter of our Fellows are Africans — and over half of our applicants are Africans.

Africa’s got innovators. People like Tarek Mouganie, who saw a broken banking system in Ghana and ran headlong into the problem. Tarek founded Affinity, a digital bank that provides affordable and accessible services to small businesses. For its customers — 90% of whom were previously unbanked, and 60 percent of whom are women in the informal sector — “financial inclusion” is so much more than a buzzword; it’s a revolution.

Africa’s got investors. People who move money with mission.
Like Tokunboh Ishmael, a Nigerian trailblazer in impact investing, using capital to scale solutions from a new generation of entrepreneurs solving Africa’s hardest challenges, and building inclusive businesses that help folks reach their full potential.

Or Abdouramane Diallo from Cote d’Ivoire, who’s making intra-African trade a reality from his seat at the Islamic Trade Finance Corporation. And, by the way, he has a few side hustles — in plant cloning, clean cooking fuel, and electrification of Africa.

Africa’s got climate champions. Visionaries like James Mwangi from Kenya. James sees how the continent that contributed the least to global warming can also contribute the most to addressing it. Through his venture studio, James is taking a big bet on Africa – its demographics, its growth trajectory, its natural resource endowments – to power a net-zero future for all. Africa alone possesses 40% of the world’s renewable energy potential. How can we unleash Africa’s potential as a global hub of climate action, while underwriting a new climate-smart model of economic growth and inclusive livelihoods for the continent itself?

Africa’s got food system fixers. People thinking about how Africa feeds itself — not just today, but sustainably into the future. Folks like Soraya Hosni, a Tunisian social entrepreneur who founded Clever Harvest, which harnesses digital data points to increase yields while implementing sustainable farming practices. Her mission: not just to grow food, but to restore ecosystems and livelihoods across North Africa.

Africa’s got peacemakers. People who understand the drivers of conflict — and the policies that are required to address conflict. Mediators who have the skills to help broker settlements. I’m thinking of Hypolitte Ntigurirwa, a Rwandan peace activist, artist, and survivor of the genocide. He founded Be The Peace, a movement using storytelling, art, and community healing to prevent cycles of violence. He once walked across Rwanda for 100 days — one for each day of the genocide — as a living testimony of forgiveness, reconciliation, and unity. He’s showing the world that peace isn’t passive — it’s built, step by step.

And Africa’s got storytellers. Stephanie Busari, the pioneering head of CNN’s first digital and multi-platform bureau in Nigeria. She is a decorated journalist with a Peabody, Emmy and a Gracie award under her belt. It was she who led CNN’s coverage of the Chibok schoolgirls.

Africa’s got soul. Musicians who have been uplifting the human spirit across the world for centuries. Asa, sold out in London in July – I got a ticket.

I mention all these individuals — and there are so many more — not only because they are Yale World Fellows, but because they are role models and it is through them we are able to re-imagine Africa’s future. They give us hope.

Africa’s got hustle to harness! Africa’s youthful population will be the force for change — they demand change.

This pathway to possible requires a new generation of leaders to harness that hustle to attract greater levels of investment, to create larger and more dynamic private sectors, to make more productive farms. Africa needs not more small businesses but rather large firms which bring together talent and tech more efficiently. This will lead to productivity gains and economic transformation seen elsewhere in the emerging world.

A new generation of leaders with ambition, who are able to inspire their populations with a vision, to provide better public goods, and to crack down on corruption. They’ve got to make governance more effective.

It’s that new generation that Oby is cultivating through the SPPG — and that we are supporting at Yale International Leadership Center.

Yesterday, we ran a workshop for SPPG alumni. We spent four hours together imagining an optimistic future for Nigeria and how to get there. I was so impressed by the character, competence and capacity of the participants. People with energy, passion commitment to building a better Nigeria. People with great emotional intelligence.

These emerging leaders are leaders of the good society, leaders who live their lives with purpose. You’ve got one life. How are you going to live it? How are you going to use your leadership position for the benefit of those less fortunate? What are you going to do to make your time on earth meaningful? It was Socrates who said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

So what is a mental health crisis? I see also as a leadership crisis. It’s not unique to Africa., but maybe it’s most severe here.

My wish for Africa is for leaders who grasp the continent’s potential and who are committed to enabling citizens develop to their full potential so that they can lead flourishing lives — lives that are productive, lives that contribute to the prosperity of their communities, countries, and continent, lives that are worth living.

This will make a tremendous contribution to addressing the brain health and mental well-being of Africans.

And it is incumbent on us all to help. For the wellbeing of everyone in the world is going to depend on the next generation of African leaders — and the future flourishing of Africa.