JNDA 2023 : “diaspora entrepreneurs are key players in positive transformation of African continent”

By Dounia Ben Mohamed

Ten years ago, almost to the day, Africa wasn’t on everyone’s mind, let alone the African diaspora in France. Pierre de Gaëtan, Njikam, a French-Cameroonian trained as a lawyer, believes in the potential of these men and women, who are changemakers both in their host countries and in their countries of origin. This is the vocation of the Journées Nationales des Diasporas et de l’Afrique (JNDA).

« The creation of the JNDA ten years ago, on May 25, 2013, the 25th of May, the day on which the Organization of African Unity, now the African Union, was founded in 1963, marks the determination of Africans to realize, in unity, the project of an economically viable, strong and emancipated Africa. An Africa in which the diaspora has become the 6th region, » says Pierre de Gaëtan Njikam, founder of the JNDA and former deputy mayor of Bordeaux in charge of partnerships with Africa and the French-speaking world.

The acceleration of Africa’s history coincides with the increasingly central role of entrepreneurship in the dynamics of the diaspora in France and in relations between Africa and France

Since its inception, the JNDA has provided a forum for meetings and events open to all and to the world. Every year, the JNDA transcends political and ideological divides to bring together thousands of participants around leading personalities and players. It’s a way of ‘reconnecting’ France and Africa, an Africa that is more than ever ‘at the centre of the world’, as the theme of the 2023 event puts it. Through its entrepreneurs in particular.

« Africa is making progress towards its destiny, striving to bring together all its energies to face up to its many challenges, in particular the need for economic growth to serve its people and its role in the world. Against this backdrop of uncertainty and sometimes disappointment, but also opportunities and hopes, entrepreneurs from the diaspora are key players in the positive transformation of the African continent, » says Pierre de Gaëtan Njikam. Fortunately, the acceleration of Africa’s history coincides with the increasingly central role played by entrepreneurship in the dynamics of the diaspora in France and in the relationship between Africa and France ».

Impacting sustainable growth on the African continent from where they are, creating value for the largest number of people through their direct and indirect investments

Entrepreneurs who give the diaspora back its full meaning and usefulness. In other words, « to impact the sustainable growth of the African continent from where they are, creating value for the largest number of people through their direct and indirect investments ». « This is the meaning that we, together with the leaders of the Diaspora and the players on the continent, wanted to give to the JNDA in Bordeaux, by giving the opportunity for a partnership link between the entrepreneurs of the continent, with those of the diaspora and others.

It’s also a nice nod to history: Bordeaux, a slave-trading port at the time of the slave trade and the source of the deportation of nearly 150,000 black slaves between 1672 and 1837, has over the years become a focal point for the renewal of Franco-African relations. Through university exchanges, economic or cultural relations, cooperation projects with the cities of Ouagadougou, Oran, Douala, etc., as well as the JNDA. « Let us hope that this momentum will be built up and lead to a lasting renewal of relations between Africa and France.

To participate : https://www.jnda2023.fr/