Africa’s future is here!Pre.Ruto&Pre.Macron spark a powerful youth conversation on AI,innovation&job

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]of it.

[00:00:01]And today we're joined by two leaders already helping shape that future.

[00:00:06]Our first speaker is one of the leading African voices in artificial intelligence today.

[00:00:11]She's not only building technology, she's helping redefine who shapes the future of AI.

[00:00:16]Through Amini, she's building sovereign AI infrastructure for Africa and the global south. Enabling countries to create value from their own data, talent, and innovation. From Indivia to Intel to ARM, her career has been dedicated to expanding access to frontier technologies and now to position Africa at the center of AI conversations. Ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome to the stage the founder and CEO of Amini, Ms. Kate Kallot.

[00:00:45]>> [cheering] >> We can keep clapping for her until she takes a seat, please. Thank you so much.

[00:01:02]Our second speaker represents a new generation of builders connecting Africa through technology and entrepreneurship.

[00:01:08]As co-founder of Jumia and president of French Tech Abidjan, he's helping build the the financial infrastructure powering African businesses across borders.

[00:01:18]Based in Abidjan and active across West Africa, he believes that Africa's next generation of jobs and economic champions will come from Africans building solutions for African realities. Please put your hands together for Matthias Leopold Di, co-founder of Jumia, president of French Tech Abidjan, and apparently he's a young leader that the French African Foundation. Make some noise for him.

[00:01:47]All right.

[00:01:51]Now, my first question is for you, Kate.

[00:01:53]As one of Time's 100 most influential people in AI. What gives you optimism about Africa's positioning in this digital transformation that we're talking about? And what must we do now to become builders of AI instead of consumers of it?

[00:02:09]Thank you for the question, which I think it's probably the most consequential question Africa is facing today in the age of AI. Builders or consumers? But for me, this question is deeply personal because I am African. My parents are from the Central African Republic, but I am also French. I was born and raised in Paris. And I spent the past 15 years rising to the top of the big US corporations in AI. But I saw something that was missing. I saw the missing infrastructure for own builders.

[00:02:41]So, 4 years ago, I decided to come home.

[00:02:44]And since then, home has been Nairobi.

[00:02:52]And I'm not alone. There are generations of builders from Microsoft, from Google, from the world's top universities, including Polytechnic, who are coming back to the continent. We're not coming back because we failed there. We're coming back because we saw what was missing here, and we want to fix it.

[00:03:08]So, us, alongside the homegrown builders, the millions of local innovators, we are the new face of Africa. We're young, we're connected, and we're deeply rooted, and we want to change the story of our continent.

[00:03:24]>> [applause] >> I often get asked why I left Nvidia at the top of the AI revolution. And for me, the answer is in the statistics.

[00:03:36]Africa holds 19% of the world's population, but less than 1% of the global compute capacity.

[00:03:43]What that really means is that builders across many African countries, across Kampala, across Nairobi, across Bangui, are stuck at the bottom of the AI value chain. They are paid to label data and not empowered to build, forced to use and consume systems that were not designed or built by them or for them.

[00:04:05]But, on the flip side, I see an opportunity, an opportunity to rewrite the future for ourselves.

[00:04:11]And that's why I decided to move to Kenya and found a mini 4 years ago. We transform local data into intelligence that the continent can act upon. We deploy local infrastructure that our governments can own, build, and operate locally. And today, we are very proud to announce a partnership with Safaricom and Bill to close the sovereign compute gap in Africa. We will deploy compute that is modular, that is energy efficient, and that is affordable, so that finally, we can own and operate our own infrastructure.

[00:04:45]So, a small company that was born out of Nairobi is now solving problems at a global scale. We've now expanded into Bridgetown, into Rio, into Manila, across the global south, because the opportunity is planetary.

[00:05:00]So, you ask me why I am what I am optimistic about, and I think I'm optimistic about our people, the generations who are coming back, who have not just studied the AI revolution, but have built it, have been inside the systems which are reshaping the world today. And the generations which have never left, I've been here, and for the past couple of years, I've learned how to master those systems.

[00:05:23]And those two give me optimism.

[00:05:25]France and Africa have something that neither of them can build alone or replicate alone.

[00:05:32]Deep talent, a tradition for strategic autonomy, and the refusal to accept that the future only belongs to those who already hold it.

[00:05:42]And for me, I hope that this is the new generation of the France-Africa relationship. I want to refuse that our builders, our future makers have to choose between living to build or staying to build. Building from home has to be the best option for us.

[00:05:59]Imagine coupling French scientific excellence with African ingenuity.

[00:06:04]Builders in Nairobi, in Paris, building on the same infrastructure.

[00:06:08]This is us writing our own AI economy, not negotiating to be part of someone else. So, your excellencies, as today, the decisions that you will make today and how we collaborate in the next 10 years will define what sovereignty means for centuries. Thank you. Merci. Asante sana. Thank you so much, Kate.

[00:06:33]>> [applause] >> Thank you so much. The next question is for you, Matthias.

[00:06:40]Nowadays, Ivorian SME paying Kenyan suppliers still routes through London or New York and pays two or three times more for the privilege. You're building the layer that changes that, right? What would it mean in real jobs and real businesses if that infrastructure existed at scale within 5 years?

[00:07:01]Thanks, Sophie. Uh your Excellency, President William Ruto, Monsieur le Président de la République Emmanuel Macron, and distinguished and honored guests without protocol. Like Kate, I'm French. I'm a French entrepreneur. Um I have been working in West Africa for the past 10 years, based between Abidjan, Dakar, Cotonou, Lomé. And I founded an online bank to try to tackle this issue called Djamo.

[00:07:27]Um we often hear uh Africa is lagging.

[00:07:31]Africa needs to catch up. Like all these narratives, but there are industries where Africa is actually leading and is actually a leader in the world.

[00:07:40]And one of those industries I want to talk about today is called mobile money and was born here in Kenya around 20 25 years ago.

[00:07:50]>> [applause] >> Today, mobile money empowers 1.2 billion people in Africa out of 1.6 billion people to access financial inclusion, send money, pay bills, etc. Um but there is a butt. This revolution is not fully complete. Today, as you said, um you you if you were a Kenyan SME, for example, you want to pay a Senegalese supplier, it takes a correspondent bank and the dollar to do it.

[00:08:21]It is not a problem of will, it is not a problem of talent, it is a problem of critical infrastructure.

[00:08:28]And this is being solved.

[00:08:30]There is a new institution called PAPSS, Pan African Payment Settlement System, which is sponsored by President Ruto, and which envisions to allow the 42 African current currencies to transact with each other without going through the dollars, etc. >> [applause] >> What's we envision today as youth is to be part of this revolution.

[00:08:57]And um all the young leaders in this panel and in the room, we want to be part of the economic um growth that we're involved in that will follow this revolution. So, um I want to say like with the backing of the right banks like Ecobank, BPE, Afreximbank, the African Development Bank, and also with the backing of the right support organization ecosystem organization, we can make this revolution happen. And I am one of those examples. I've benefited from this funding. I've benefited from this support. And I want to tell and with this with the approval from the presidents that this is what a waste to use today. And this is what we need to size today.

[00:09:49]Thank you.

[00:09:50]>> [applause] >> Thank you so much, Matthias.

[00:09:55]Now, Excellency, Mr. President Ruto, Africa's greatest resource is not buried underground. As you can see, it's the talent. It's the creativity and the ambition of young people. We've spoken today about artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, entrepreneurship, and financial innovation. But, for millions of young Africans listening, the question is ultimately very simple. Will this technological revolution create opportunities they can actually access?

[00:10:25]So, my final question to you is, what must African governments do differently, starting now, to ensure that the next generation of African innovators, engineers, creators, and entrepreneurs are able to fulfill their full potential, allowing them to build globally competitive companies and careers right here in Africa?

[00:10:48]Thank you very much, and congratulations, Kate and my good friend Matthias.

[00:10:53]Listening to you is uh you know, breath of fresh air. I mean, I I I could relate with everything that you said. But, let me say this.

[00:11:04]For us to be able to be future-ready, and I'm happy to know this morning, I am among the people who have been saying I'm neither facing west or east, I'm facing forward. But, now you're telling me forward is south.

[00:11:24]So, I will improve. I will know I will now know what to say.

[00:11:28]Now, Um, two things.

[00:11:33]One, infrastructure.

[00:11:38]And two, knowledge.

[00:11:41]Let me start with the first one.

[00:11:43]There is every reason why we should have the right knowledge ac- uh acquisition.

[00:11:54]We need to fine-tune the whole ecosystem around education.

[00:12:02]In Kenya, we have had to review the education system and to make it competence-based.

[00:12:10]There was a time we were teaching and the the education was about academics and what you can cram and what you can regurgitate and what you can do.

[00:12:21]Today, we are changing that to be much more ex- uh experiential so that we get more skills, we get more competencies. And that is why 60% of our education is now targeted to STEM subjects that will inform what these two great young leaders are talking about.

[00:12:42]We have had to um invest more in education, making sure that they have the right education, they have the right skills, they have the right competencies so that they can participate meaningfully. Number two is infrastructure.

[00:13:02]Digital infrastructure.

[00:13:04]Making sure that we have fiber optic across our countries, making sure that it is accessible, creating spaces where entrepreneurs, creatives, young people can um undertake their assignments, their aspirations, and drive what these two good people have been saying.

[00:13:29]In Kenya, apart from reforming the education system, putting more money in, and realigning education so that it speaks to the requirements of the now, we are also investing in digital infrastructure. Fiber optic.

[00:13:45]They've just said we are manufacturing now here in Kenya a lot of digital assets, whether it is phones, whether it is computers, and all that digital infrastructure. We are laying fiber optic to 30,000 km already in Kenya to make sure that every part of Kenya is in the loop.

[00:14:09]And then finally, the Ministry of ICT, and I have my minister here, is now working on how to bring the rest of the world into Kenya to experience.

[00:14:22]And I'm going to ask Kate why she chose Kenya. I would really want to know why, of all the other countries, why she There must be something in Kenya that gave gave her, you know, there must be something. [applause] And it must be among the things I'm talking about.

[00:14:39]So, making sure that some of the best companies across the world come to participate with us.

[00:14:48]Last year, Teleperformance, the largest BPO company in the world, set up office in Kenya. We have many BPO companies set up in Kenya. Why? Because we have young people with the right skills.

[00:15:04]We have the right infrastructure in terms of internet connectivity. And we have a very enterprising and entrepreneurial population. So, in my in my opinion, this is the space in which we are operating. And I think every other country should be able to uh uh think in that direction because the future is about technology. The future is digital and AI is going to be at the center of it.

[00:15:36]Thank you so much, Your Excellency.

[00:15:37]>> [applause] >> Please, will you will you favor me with the Kate? Will you favor me?

[00:15:44]We think Kenya because of the ecosystem.

[00:15:47]Like you mentioned, the ecosystem is vibrant and it's growing.

[00:15:50]>> [applause] >> Thank you so much. Thank you, Your Excellency, for your remarks. Thank you, Kate. Thank you, Mathias. We are closing this first panel. Thank you, everyone.

[00:15:59]And uh Mariam, I give you the mic to follow the style. Thank you.

[00:16:04]>> [applause] >> Thank you.

[00:16:10]Thank you so much, Your Excellency, and Mathias, Kate's as well, and Sophia for a wonderful job moderating.

[00:16:17]The fact that Kate left in Nvidia, which makes more money on a yearly basis than a lot of nations, to come and invest back home says something that if we don't believe in ourselves, no one else will believe it, right? We have to set the precedent. And I think that's amazing. Also, what we're doing with the competency-based curriculum, as the president has said, is preparing ourselves for now and for the future. And I love that we're able to have these discussions in a room where the whole continent is represented.

[00:16:52]There we go. Speaking of representation, No.

[00:17:00]Okay, I think we're back. Thank you, President Macron. Um speaking of representation for the continent, the fact that we get to tell our own stories is also incredibly important. How we platform ourselves across the world, how we are listened to, how we are viewed, how we are perceived, that's what we're talking about in this next panel, and we will have the moderator being Aisha Touré, who is the CEO of Orange Sierra Leone. Please give Aisha a big round of applause.

[00:17:28]>> [applause] [cheering] >> Let's go.

[00:17:35]>> [cheering] [applause] >> And of course, His Excellency President Macron will be on her panel as well. Let me hand over to you, Aisha.

[00:17:53]Sorry.

[00:17:55]Do you have the mic?

[00:18:01]Merci, Mariam.

[00:18:03]Leurs Excellences Monsieur Emmanuel Macron, Président de la République Française. Monsieur William Ruto, Président de la République du Kenya.

[00:18:15]Merci de nous offrir ce moment.

[00:18:17]Bonjour à toutes et à tous.

[00:18:19]Je m'appelle Aisha Touré, Directrice Générale d'Orange Sierra Leone.

[00:18:24]Je évoluer entre le France, le Royaume-Uni, les États-Unis et maintenant la Sierra Leone.

[00:18:33]Je sais ce que signifie naviguer entre plusieurs cultures et apprendre à en faire une force.

[00:18:39]Je suis également fière de faire partie d'un groupe qui connecte aujourd'hui plus de 160 millions d'Africains à des services numériques et financiers essentiels et qui a déjà formé plus d'1,5 million de jeunes Africains.