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Speech by the Development Minister at the Africa Rising event - part of the International Festival of Business 2014 in Liverpool.

There can be little doubt that Africa is on the rise.

Six of the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies of the past decade were in sub-Saharan Africa. And the World Bank forecasts 5.3% GDP growth this year for Sub-Saharan Africa.

But Africa’s progress goes beyond the economic figures. More children are in education, maternal mortality rates are down, fewer people are dying of malaria and AIDS.

There is growing optimism that all Africans will have a chance to benefit from the economic upsurge.

What’s particularly striking to me is the explosion of innovation, ideas and entrepreneurship across the continent.

In Tanzania, a company named Off Grid Electric is applying the successful mobile phone business model to light up off grid East Africa within a decade. Poor households prepay weekly just for the energy they use for their lights, TV and mobile phones from power systems installed in their homes for free.

In Malawi, the entrepreneurs behind Malawi Mangoes are setting up the country’s first ever large-scale, environmentally friendly, fruit processing plant, powered by solar and biogas, exploiting the growing demand for mango and banana concentrate in African, Western and Asian markets.

And even in South Sudan, where there are so many challenges for businesses, the South Farmers Company Limited recently launched a hatchery in the Kajo-Keji county to sell chicks to small holder poultry farmers. Now, for the first time, poultry farmers in the region have a regular supply of quality day-old chicks.

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