The ongoing Tokyo International Conference for African Development ( TICAD) underscored the need for greater role to be played by the private sector and in grooming up entrepreneurs to take the business leadership forward in the continent. The 7th TICAD is currently being held in the in the Japanese city of Yokohama. Those who push for greater private sector role in the development of the region are Rwandan president, Paul Kagame; African business leader and philanthropist, Tony Elumelu and head of the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Henrietta Fore. They felt that the increased investment will help youth access employment and training that can boost entrepreneurship. Japan may offer enhanced trade insurance to boost private sector investment in Africa as indicated by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in one of the earlier sessions of the Summit. In the 6th edition of TICAD, held in 2018, Japan committed US$ 30 billion for the region. It is still not known how much that has been expended and the type of investment interventions.
According to a United Nations report published in June this year, foreign investment in sub-Saharan Africa rose 13% last year to US$32 billion, reversing two years of drought and bucking the global trend of a decline in the cross-border movement of capital.
