OladipupoOgunnubi, Joint degree MSEE & MBA student; president of Africa Business Club at Illinois (ABCI)

Image

Africa Business Club at Illinois (ABCI) is a UIUC student organization that exists to promote business-related activities across different sectors of the African continent through the Illinois network. On October 4, 2014, ABCI had a launch event that was well attended by UIUC faculty and students. While ABCI is focused of Africa’s economic development, its members are certainly not restricted to Africans alone. Participation and membership in the organization is open to people of various cultural and professional backgrounds with interests in Africa’s business and economic development.

2014 Africa Business Conference

One main program through which ABCI accomplishes its mission is an annual Africa Business Conference series. The group successfully held its first conference on April 4, 2014 at the I-Hotel and Conference Center and over 100 people were in attendance. The attendees comprised of students, professors, and business professionals of various backgrounds. Dr. Paul McNamara, Professor of Consumer and Family Economics, served as the event moderator. He also conducted the panel Q&A session for the four main event speakers. The first speaker was Dr. Madhu Viswanathan, a College of Business Professor, who addressed the issue of poverty and sustainable businesses in subsistence marketplaces. The next speaker was Ms. Margereth Chacha, Managing Director of Tanzania Women’s Bank Plc. Ms. Chacha shared her valuable insights about the state of Africa’s banking sector and the numerous benefits of micro-financing solutions for low-income and middle-class households. The third speaker was Mr. Jeff Vosseller, Founder and CEO of Africa Agribusiness Magazine. During his speech, Mr. Vosseller gave a solid overview of agriculture in Sub-saharan Africa and emphasized the importance of agribusiness solutions that create (or redirect) more value to subsistence farmers. He also highlighted the vast investment opportunities in West and East Africa. The last speaker was Mr. Conal Duffy. Mr. Duffy is the Vice President of the Emerging Markets division at Alliant Insurance Services. He shared his firsthand experience in effectively managing political and investment risk associated with large-scale investment projects in Africa. In summary, all speakers were truly phenomenal and inspirational. Also noteworthy was the attendance and support by UIUC Provost Ilesanmi Adesida, Champaign Mayor Don Gerard, Illinois MBA Dean Darcy Sementi, Tayo Laleye and Company Nigeria, Student Cultural Programming Fee, Center for International Business Education & Research (CIBER) and Center for African Studies (CAS).

The Future of ABCI

The current 2014/15 ABCI leaders are Miano Njoka, Ope Akinosun, Eric Bultman, Mansfield Wrotto, and Ladi Ogunnubi and a major priority for the team is the sustainability of ABCI. The team has already begun preparations for the 2015 Africa Business Conference next spring. The group is also setting up innovative programs that create more awareness about business in Africa and foster stronger networking in order to drive more value creation in Africa. Along with program improvement efforts, ABCI is working to improve its university and corporate relations and is looking to have a bigger impact within the Champaign-Urbana community through charitable events.