Our one year old baby!

Giving birth is never easy. It is hell in the worst of times when the world is crying from  pandemic to back door to breakfast time and economies are diving.

This saw the birth of Billionaire Tomorrow on November 1 2020 – a leap of faith, for all the right reasons, trying to see a far-reaching future on a fearful foggy day. At Billionaire Tomorrow we see that vibrant future. Africa has more than billion people and is by far the most youthful in the world. We see this – coupled with the tremendous leaps in  technology – as the driving force towards stronger economies.

This is a must, not only to haul millions of Africans out of  poverty, they do not deserve, but also for the sake of world stability. Politicians have long made speeches about how they no longer want the image of Africa to be fleeing, shivering, refugees in open boats, crossing the Mediterranean. These words may have already disappeared into the ether, but on the ground the priority has to be to create wealth and stability in Africa; one job at a time. We believe the entrepreneurs that cover in Billionaire Tomorrow are at the forefront of this.

If  anything, politicians do not need to need to make speeches about these entrepreneurs ; merely clear the red tape from their path and leave them to get on with the job. It gladdens my heart to have written about many of these entrepreneurs like the Nigerian

fintech guru Iyin Aboyeji who dodged  a safe job in the corporate world, in Lagos, in favour  of trying to secure funding from US investor Jeremy Johnson. With a barrage of emails and the persistence of youth Aboyeji finally  got to meet Johnson in New York for a “fresh and coke” that is salad and a fizzy drink in English. Johnson agreed to invest into what is now fintech payments company Andela . The two managed to snag Mark Zuckerberg as an investor into a company – now a billion- dollar unicorn – that could be seen as a tribute to the persistence of a young African entrepreneur. Just one of the many tales of Billionaire Tomorrow born in in my 40th  year in journalism.

It all began with a Tweet and accelerated through hours of late-night Zoom calls with co-founder and investor Sean Drake. In the cold nights we talked of dreams. It was an odd mix of expertise, if ever there was one; from two different worlds. Sean is a

former trader and investment banker – a son of Ghana and a man of numbers and return on investors.

I was the veteran, dyed-in-the-wool, journalist with 30 years of reporting from every highway and byway in Africa. On this road, I developed a love for my adopted continent and  an understanding and respect for human beings that I don’t think I could ever have got in any other continent in the world.  Both of us shared a belief in Africa. Both felt entrepreneurs, coupled with increased

investment, were a big part of the answer for our children and their children. We both believed that stories about what was really happening on the ground in African  business were not being told, or worse, drowned out by the negative headlines of doom and

disaster.

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We vowed to build a publication talking of fintech, risk, reward and the creation of wealth from shoemakers to price makers. Voila – Billionaire Tomorrow – you may not be today, but you could be tomorrow!

We’ve only just got started – watch out in the next few months for expansion and a whole new offering that could increase your wealth.