Center for African Prosperity, which was launched by Atlas Network in May 2019, is a new opportunity to focus on the role that free markets, property rights, and the rule of law have in creating the conditions for people to thrive in the region. With 20 active organizational partners, Atlas Network is well-positioned to engage local civil society groups to help solve complex issues with home-grown solutions that address local needs.
Under the direction of internationally-recognized business entrepreneur Magatte Wade, the Center for African Prosperity will support Atlas Network’s regional partner organizations in their efforts to promote economic freedom and strong institutions and to build the capacity for reforms that lead to broad-based prosperity across Africa.
About Magatte Wade
Magatte Wade is a serial entrepreneur, inspirational speaker, and visionary business leader with a passion for creating positive change in Africa. She is the founder and CEO of SkinIsSkin.com, “the lipbalm with a mission,” and is dedicated to reducing rational discrimination while creating jobs and prosperity in her home country of Senegal. Throughout her career, she has created successful high-end retail brands inspired by diverse African traditions. She is a Forbes “20 Youngest Power Women in Africa”, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum at Davos, a TED Global Africa Fellow, and "Leading Woman in Wellness” award winner by the Global Wellness Summit. Wade also serves on the Advisory Board of the Whole Planet Foundation, of Whole Foods Market. She has written for The Guardian, HuffingtonPost.com, and Barron’s, and is a frequent speaker at business conferences and on college campuses, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, MIT, and the Wharton School of Business.
Wade believes that the “cheetah generation,” a new cohort of dynamic African entrepreneurs and professionals identified by Ghanian economist George Ayittey, will create local pathways for change that will shape the future of African prosperity. “Perhaps the most unique challenge we face is that the world has come to perceive that Africans themselves are not capable of creating prosperity—and require charity in order to survive,” she said. “This simply isn’t true. The combination of negative perceptions of Africans, combined with widespread ignorance regarding the need for economic freedom is a toxic combination.”
With Wade’s knowledge and experience guiding the Center for African Prosperity, Atlas Network will help build inclusive prosperity, fight negative stereotypes, and share a message of freedom with an international audience.
• Watch Magatte Wade in “How We Thrive: Made in Mekhé,” A FEE documentary about doing business in her home country of Senegal.
• Watch Magatte Wade on “The Power of Entrepreneurship” at FEECon
• Watch Magatte Wade’s TED Talk, “Why it’s too hard to start a business in Africa—and how to change it.”
Ibrahim Anoba, Fellow of the Center for African Prosperity
Ibrahim B. Anoba is a Yoruba native of Africa; he holds a Nigerian passport out of necessity. He currently serves as managing editor at Africa Liberty, a media and freedom-oriented organization dedicated to the dissemination of ideas towards a new century of African prosperity. He is also in charge of the organization’s writing fellowship program. Ibrahim’s research interest is in African affairs.
Prior to 2018, his focus was on the African political economy, particularly on the effectiveness of foreign aid policies in addressing the continent’s economic challenges. His articles on this theme are widely published and cited. He is now focused on the political history of Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries with an eye for the evolution of indigenous freedom movements around the period, and how they connect to the wider Pan-African movement. He is currently working on four manuscripts, two among which are on the Pan-African interpretation of Ethiopianism, and a review of authoritarianism in the Pan-African policies of Kwame Nkrumah (1945 to 1966). The other two consists of an inquiry into the rise of the free-market movement in Africa, and a review of the literary foundation of the African thought on freedom.
Ibrahim is an alumnus of numerous freedom-oriented organizations including the Charles Koch Institute, the Cato Institute, the Atlas Network, America’s Future Foundation, Young Voices, and Students For Liberty. He earned his undergraduate degree in political science in 2015 from the Olabisi Onabanjo University and is in pursuit of a Masters of Research degree in the history of Africa and the African diaspora from the University of Chichester. He plans for a doctorate in Africana studies in continuation of his research interest.