You are my pride, Kagame tells global shapers

President Paul Kagame has expressed gratitude towards the global shapers for the good work they are doing to help develop the African continent.

President Kagame was 32 Global shapers in Addis Ababa shortly before the opening of the WEF.

Global shapers are a global network of local communities set up one year ago by the World Economic Forum (WEF) to engage in its events and activities.

Local communities are called hubs; globally there are 157 hubs with more than 1200 members. They have representatives in Sub-Saharan Africa consisting of 38 hubs and an additional 12 from North Africa.

The leaders are under the age of 30 and gather on a regular basis to engage in activities and projects to benefit their local environments.

“This gathering of Global Shapers from our continent gives me great hope of the direction our continent is taking and I think a lot is going to happen in the basis of your efforts as young people who feel it’s their responsibility to handle tasks and place Africa where it wants to be,” said Kagame

He noted that it’s very encouraging and thanked them for their efforts.

“If Ican be real with you and speak about my own situation, the challenges I have faced; having to build a country from scratch there are two things we have to do or encourage.”

“To be a good leader, there has to be a clear message; definition of a problem, how to deal with the problem and a demonstration to show what needs to be done and then, put systems in place to keep people accountable,” said the Head of State.

He urged them never to leave things to chance and said: “I learn a lot of things as I go along. I think it is important to emphasize to young people to never assume that you know, always assume that you don’t know. Always listen and learn.’’

Commenting after the president’s address, Business Development Manager for West and Central Africa and co-founder of Global Shapers LeylaGozo said that President Kagame represents a President that has shown the difference and a role model.

“In reference to the discussion today, it’s a positive one question that was asked to him when he was our age, his ideas on Rwanda and how the country had changed. What he shared with us is positive and we will try to bring those changes in our respective countries,” said Gozo.