Special Edition: Africa Industrialisation Week 2020 | Global Entrepreneurship Week 2020

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world, according to the 2019 Forbes billionaires' list. With an estimated fortune of $131bn he is the wealthiest man in modern history. But he is by no means the richest man of all time.The richest man who ever lived was King Mansa Musa of Mali. In 2012, US website Celebrity Net Worth tried to estimate his wealth and came up with a figure of a mind-blowing $400bn, but economic historians agree that his wealth is impossible to pin down to a number. He made this money from Trans-Saharan trade of salt and gold, with Europe and the middle east. We all know the story of why Mali is now one of the poorest nations in the world today because of a combination of anti-unity, poor management, and competitor neighbouring trade centres. Today, intra-EU trade sits at an approximate 70%, while intra-Asia trade is approximately 60%, but set to grow even more since this past Sunday’s landmark signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership by 15 Asia-Pacific economies, making it the world's largest free trade agreement, covering about one-third of the global population and GDP. Even with Brexit Europe’s intra-EU trade will not be significantly impacted as the culture of ‘buy local’ has been ingrained for generations. With Asia’s new partnership they are set to become the wealthiest and most powerful economies in the world as a collective. So, why not Africa? Why not our unity? Why not our AfCFTA? And why not now? Africa is the richest continent in terms of natural resources, yet our divideness and corruption make us a target for manipulation. Yes, the AfCFTA offers us an opportunity for unity, but more than that it offers us an opportunity for infrastructure development, investment, trade increases, intra-Africa trade to go from a measly 18% to approximately 65% in just a few years, taking almost 30 million out of poverty. The 20th November annually is observed as Africa Industrialisation Day, proclaimed by the 25th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State