In the Center for Free Enterprise's fall speaker series kick-off, Senegalese entrepreneur Magatte Wade will explain how the only way to create prosperity in Africa is through entrepreneurship and free markets. She will describe the heavy regulatory obstacles to launching and managing a business across Africa and show step-by-step how entrepreneurs change lives by generating jobs by creating value for customers.

Magatte Wade is passionate about creating jobs and prosperity in Africa through entrepreneurship and wielding the power of brands and business to impact social and cultural change here in the US. She was born in Senegal, educated in France, and launched her entrepreneurial career in San Francisco. Magatte's current product line, manufactured in Senegal, is Skin is Skin(skinisskin.com), a skincare company dedicated to undoing the cultural habit of discrimination.  

Based on her experiences creating consumer brands and building agricultural and manufacturing capacity in Senegal, Magatte has spoken at dozens of universities including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, MIT, etc. as well as at global conferences on innovation and economic development worldwide. She writes for the Huffington Post, Barron’s, and the U.K. Guardian. She is a Young Global Leader with the World Economic Forum at Davos and was named one of the “Twenty Young Power Women of Africa” by Forbes U.S. 

Magatte was interviewed on FreeSpeak, a podcast produced by the Center for Free Enterprise. Listen at https://soundcloud.com/user-119004746/magatte-wade.  Magatte’s work was recently profiled in a FEE documentary, “Made in Mekhe” and TED recently released her talk “Why it’s too hard to start a business in Africa – and how to change it.

This event is free and open to all, and free pizza will be served following the talk.