Alibaba founder teach, train and educate young East Africans on e-commerce

Chinese Billionaire Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group on Friday attended a YouthConnect Africa 2017 summit in Kigali, Rwanda, where he promised to set up a project working with the universities in the continent on e-commerce.

“By the way the first project we will work with UNCTAD.The second project we will work with universities in Africa and governments to work with universities to teach students here that e-commerce, the internet, artifice intelligence, big data, cloud computing, so teach and train and educate as many young people here as possible,” Ma said.

Ma, who founded the Hangzhou-based e-commerce firm, urged the youth to treat their customers as their number one marketer.

He also urged them not to worry about what the competitors were doing saying if the customer is happy, he will let others know about your product.

Ma visited Kigali to attend a youth summit organized by the Rwandan government, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

“Don’t spend too much time on your competitors, spend enough time, 90% of the time on your customers, it’s the customer who is the best marketer for you,” Ma added.

“To me Jack Ma represents the same thing that Rwanda represents, it represents growth, he represents opportunity because, seeing that he came from a poor background and was able to the things that he has done,” said a Rwandan University Student, Jeanne Muguni.

The summit in Kigali attracted more than 3,000 participants from across Africa who were keen to be inspired by Ma’s entrepreneurial skills. The Chinese Billionaire had previously visited Kenya before stopping over at Rwanda.

Ma and 38 other Chinese tycoons are expected to scout for business opportunities in East Africa’s largest economy, where Chinese influence has been rising.