Equity for Africa Summit In April, the School of Business and the Standing for Freedom Center hosted an Equity for Africa Summit. During this summit, American business leaders connected with African heads of state and other officials.
CONNECTING CONTINENTS Summit increases cooperation, support, and aid from American businesses LOGAN SMITH The Liberty University School of Business, in partnership with Liberty’s Standing for Freedom Center, organized and implemented one of the most groundbreaking summits in school history April 13-15, bringing in top government and business trailblazers from across Africa to discuss ways to orchestrate and deliver Judeo-Christian foundational change for all economies involved. These African leaders, either attending in person or through videoconferencing, included the vice president of Nigeria, president of Ghana, former president of Malawi, vice president of Liberia, and other political and economic heads of state. Members of the Congo parliament, the governor of South Sudan, and an ambassador to Rwanda also participated. Many other countries wanted to attend, like South Africa, but were prevented by absolute COVID-19 shutdowns. American leaders included CEO of Hobby Lobby Steve Green; former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; former Secretary of
10
Defense Christopher Miller; former NFL star and business entrepreneur Jack Brewer; former NASA Director Jim Bridenstine; World Bank Director Erik Bethel; former Chief of Staff to Vice President Mike Pence Marc Short; and Congressman Ted Yoho, among others. “This event was a herculean effort, and our whole team was blown away by what we saw,” said Dr. Dave Brat, dean of the School of Business and former U.S. Congressman. “The Bible says feed the poor. The only thing that feeds the poor in the millions is broad-based economic growth, and the major cause of economic growth is capital accumulation. … The goal of this summit was to direct capital investments to Africa.” Within a week of the summit, many of the participants were holding business meetings to make those connections happen. The summit included 20 panels that tackled a wide range of economic subjects — how countries can structure deals and implement goodwill diplomacy, emerging technologies
