Rwanda: A Reminder That Africa Must Build With What It Has
By Banele Rewo
In August 2026, I travelled from Johannesburg to Kigali, Rwanda, to attend the Africa Mindset Reset Forum, hosted by the African School of Governance. I went there as a South African entrepreneur and storyteller. I returned thinking more deeply about what it means to build businesses, communities and opportunities on this continent. There is something powerful about Africans travelling within Africa. We often understand our continent through headlines, statistics and other people’s interpretations. Visiting another African country allows you to experience it for yourself. Kigali gave me an opportunity to observe another African city — how people move, how businesses operate, how the city presents itself and, importantly, how Rwanda thinks about its future. It also made me think differently about South Africa. Sometimes you need to leave home to see home more clearly.
Africa Must Become Our Market
One of the conversations that stayed with me was the need to move Pan-Africanism beyond an idea and towards practical economic participation. As entrepreneurs, we should be asking bigger questions. Why shouldn’t a product made in Soweto find customers in Kigali, Nairobi, Accra or Lagos? Why shouldn’t an entrepreneur in Rwanda consider Johannesburg part of their market? Why shouldn’t African capital fund African ideas, African manufacturers produce African products, and African consumers deliberately support businesses being built on this continent? These questions connect directly with my own entrepreneurial journey. Through businesses such as SQUAD and Z2B, I have been part of experiments demonstrating what can happen when ordinary people organise their resources, pool capital and use that capital to build enterprises. Being in Rwanda made me think about that philosophy on a much bigger scale. What could we achieve if we applied that same thinking across borders?
Creators Are Part of the Story
Another important part of the experience was travelling alongside African creators. The creator economy is usually discussed through followers, engagement, campaigns and brand deals. But creators have something incredibly powerful: distribution. We have direct access to audiences. That means we can do more than entertain and advertise. We can introduce Africans to African businesses, destinations, entrepreneurs, ideas and opportunities they may otherwise never encounter.
We can help Africans discover Africa.
Coming Home With Bigger Questions
I travelled to Rwanda expecting to attend a Forum. I returned with questions. What happens when African entrepreneurs begin seeing the continent as their market? What happens when African capital deliberately funds African businesses? What happens when creators use their platforms to tell more African stories? Africa’s future will not be built through optimism alone. It will be built through ownership, execution, collaboration and trade.
There is an enormous continent around us. We should know it. We should trade with it. And most importantly, we should build it.
Banele Rewo
August 2026
