ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sangu Delle - Entrepreneur
Sangu Delle is an entrepreneur and clean water activist. A TED Fellow who hails from Ghana, he sees incredible potential in the African economy.

Why you should listen

Born in Ghana, Sangu Delle's childhood home was a refuge for victims of torture and violence from neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone. Delle graduated from Harvard College with highest honors in African Studies and Economics. He was awarded the Soros Fellowship and pursued a Juris Doctor of Law and MBA at Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School, respectively.

At Harvard, enrolling in the Social Engagement Initiative program that bridged the academic study and practical service gap, Delle co-founded cleanacwa (formerly the African Development Initiative) in 2007, which today is currently working to bring clean water and sanitation to over 200,000 people in 160 villages in the Ayensuano, Suhum and Nandom districts in Ghana. Delle is also passionate about mental health and wellness, and was a founding member of Harvard University’s Mental Health Alumni Special Interest Group. 

Delle has previously worked at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Valiant Capital Partners. Convinced that the real needs of communities can best be met through entrepreneurship, in 2008 he founded an investment holding company, Golden Palm Investments(GPI) to fund promising start-ups that can have social impact and generate jobs. GPI has backed technology startups such as Andela, Flutterwave and mPharma.  GPI has also built a portfolio of greenfield companies in healthcare, agriculture and financial services. Delle serves as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GPI.

Delle has received several international accolades including being named a 2016 finalist for “Young CEO of the Year” by the Africa CEO Forum, Africa’s “Young Person of the Year” in 2014 by the Future Africa Awards, selected as a 2014 TEDGlobal Fellow, Forbes’ top 30 most promising entrepreneurs in Africa and Euromoney’s “Africa’s Rising Stars” award. Institut Choiseul and Forbes Afrique named Delle as one of the top “100 Economic Leaders in Africa” in 2015. Mic named Delle as one of 9 entrepreneurs in the millennial generation making a difference. 

Delle is a Trustee of the Peddie School in NJ and serves on the Advisory Board and chairs the Leadership Council of Harvard University’s Center for African Studies. He also serves on the inaugural West Africa Advisory Group of the Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University.

Delle loves the outdoors and trekked Mount Everest in 2013 and summited Kilimanjaro during the summer of 2015.

More profile about the speaker
Sangu Delle | Speaker | TED.com
TEDGlobal 2014

Sangu Delle: In praise of macro -- yes, macro -- finance in Africa

Filmed:
1,183,051 views

In this short, provocative talk, financier Sangu Delle questions whether microfinance — small loans to small entrepreneurs -- is the best way to drive growth in developing countries. "We seem to be fixated on this romanticized idea that every poor person in Africa is an entrepreneur,” he says. "Yet, my work has taught me that most people want jobs.” Delle, a TED Fellow, makes the case for supporting large companies and factories — and clearing away the obstacles to pan-African trade.
- Entrepreneur
Sangu Delle is an entrepreneur and clean water activist. A TED Fellow who hails from Ghana, he sees incredible potential in the African economy. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
Traditional prescriptions for growth
in Africa are not working very well.
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After one trillion dollars
in African development-related aid
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in the last 60 years,
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real per capita income today
is lower than it was in the 1970s.
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Aid is not doing too well.
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In response,
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the Bretton Woods institutions --
the IMF and the World Bank --
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pushed for free trade not aid,
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yet the historical record
shows little empirical evidence
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that free trade leads to economic growth.
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The newly prescribed
silver bullet is microcredit.
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We seem to be fixated
on this romanticized idea
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that every poor peasant in Africa
is an entrepreneur.
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01:02
(Laughter)
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Yet my work and travel
in 40-plus countries across Africa
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have taught me that most people
want jobs instead.
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My solution: Forget micro-entrepreneurs.
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Let's invest in building
pan-African titans
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like Sudanese businessman Mo Ibrahim.
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Mo took a contrarian bet on Africa when
he founded Celtel International in '98
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and built it into a mobile
cellular provider
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with 24 million subscribers
across 14 African countries by 2004.
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The Mo model might be better
than the everyman entrepreneur model,
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which prevents an effective means
of diffusion and knowledge-sharing.
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Perhaps we are not at a stage in Africa
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where many actors and small enterprises
leads to growth through competition.
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Consider these two alternative scenarios.
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One: You loan 200 dollars
to each of 500 banana farmers
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allowing them to dry
their surplus bananas
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and fetch 15 percent more revenue
at the local market.
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Or two: You give 100,000 dollars
to one savvy entrepreneur
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and help her set up a factory
that yields 40 percent additional income
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to all 500 banana farmers
and creates 50 additional jobs.
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We invested in the second scenario,
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and backed 26-year-old
Kenyan entrepreneur Eric Muthomi
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to set up an agro-processing
factory called Stawi
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to produce gluten-free
banana-based flour and baby food.
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Stawi is leveraging economies of scale
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and using modern manufacturing processes
to create value for not only its owners
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but its workers, who have
an ownership in the business.
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Our dream is to take an Eric Muthomi
and try to help him become a Mo Ibrahim,
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which requires skill, financing,
local and global partnerships,
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and extraordinary perseverance.
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But why pan-African?
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The scramble for Africa
during the Berlin Conference of 1884 --
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where, quite frankly, we Africans
were not exactly consulted --
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(Laughter) (Applause) --
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resulted in massive fragmentation
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and many sovereign states
with small populations:
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Liberia, four million;
Cape Verde, 500,000.
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Pan-Africa gives you one billion people,
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granted across 55 countries
with trade barriers and other impediments,
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but our ancestors traded
across the continent
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before Europeans drew lines around us.
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The pan-African opportunities
outweigh the challenges,
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and that's why we're expanding
Stawi's markets from just Kenya
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to Algeria, Nigeria, Ghana,
and anywhere else that will buy our food.
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We hope to help solve food security,
empower farmers, create jobs,
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develop the local economy,
and we hope to become rich in the process.
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While it's not the sexiest approach,
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and maybe it doesn't
achieve the same feel-good
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as giving a woman 100 dollars
to buy a goat on kiva.org,
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perhaps supporting fewer,
higher-impact entrepreneurs
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to build massive businesses
that scale pan-Africa
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can help change this.
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The political freedom
for which our forebearers fought
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is meaningless without economic freedom.
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We hope to aid this fight
for economic freedom
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by building world-class businesses,
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creating indigenous wealth,
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providing jobs that we
so desperately need,
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and hopefully helping achieve this.
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Africa shall rise.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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Tom Rielly: So Sangu, of course,
this is strong rhetoric.
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You're making 100 percent contrast
between microcredit
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and regular investment
and growing regular investment.
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Do you think there is
a role for microcredit at all?
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Sangu Delle: I think there is a role.
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Microcredit has been a great,
innovative way
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to expand financial access
to the bottom of the pyramid.
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But for the problems we face in Africa,
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when we are looking
at the Marshall Plan
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to revitalize war-torn Europe,
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it was not full of donations of sheep.
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We need more than just microcredit.
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We need more than just give 200 dollars.
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We need to build big businesses,
and we need jobs.
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TR: Very good. Thank you so much.
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(Applause)
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sangu Delle - Entrepreneur
Sangu Delle is an entrepreneur and clean water activist. A TED Fellow who hails from Ghana, he sees incredible potential in the African economy.

Why you should listen

Born in Ghana, Sangu Delle's childhood home was a refuge for victims of torture and violence from neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone. Delle graduated from Harvard College with highest honors in African Studies and Economics. He was awarded the Soros Fellowship and pursued a Juris Doctor of Law and MBA at Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School, respectively.

At Harvard, enrolling in the Social Engagement Initiative program that bridged the academic study and practical service gap, Delle co-founded cleanacwa (formerly the African Development Initiative) in 2007, which today is currently working to bring clean water and sanitation to over 200,000 people in 160 villages in the Ayensuano, Suhum and Nandom districts in Ghana. Delle is also passionate about mental health and wellness, and was a founding member of Harvard University’s Mental Health Alumni Special Interest Group. 

Delle has previously worked at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Valiant Capital Partners. Convinced that the real needs of communities can best be met through entrepreneurship, in 2008 he founded an investment holding company, Golden Palm Investments(GPI) to fund promising start-ups that can have social impact and generate jobs. GPI has backed technology startups such as Andela, Flutterwave and mPharma.  GPI has also built a portfolio of greenfield companies in healthcare, agriculture and financial services. Delle serves as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GPI.

Delle has received several international accolades including being named a 2016 finalist for “Young CEO of the Year” by the Africa CEO Forum, Africa’s “Young Person of the Year” in 2014 by the Future Africa Awards, selected as a 2014 TEDGlobal Fellow, Forbes’ top 30 most promising entrepreneurs in Africa and Euromoney’s “Africa’s Rising Stars” award. Institut Choiseul and Forbes Afrique named Delle as one of the top “100 Economic Leaders in Africa” in 2015. Mic named Delle as one of 9 entrepreneurs in the millennial generation making a difference. 

Delle is a Trustee of the Peddie School in NJ and serves on the Advisory Board and chairs the Leadership Council of Harvard University’s Center for African Studies. He also serves on the inaugural West Africa Advisory Group of the Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University.

Delle loves the outdoors and trekked Mount Everest in 2013 and summited Kilimanjaro during the summer of 2015.

More profile about the speaker
Sangu Delle | Speaker | TED.com
THE ORIGINAL VIDEO ON TED.COM