Empowering Words: 40 Inspirational Quotes from Celebrated African Leaders to Fuel Your Journey

Whether you are building a business or a career, there are times when you need a second voice to reinforce your ideas or echo your claims. That’s why you need quotes.

In the words of former Swiss Volleyball player and author of 100 Inspirational Quotes, Michel F. Bolle, “inspirational quotes are important because they activate an emotional pulse point in our hearts and minds when we are in a distressing situation. The right quote can help us to see light at the end of the tunnel, and give us that extra burst of hope and courage to persevere.”

Therefore, we ferreted out 40 powerful quotes from some of the most celebrated African leaders to help you get through any day.

Let's jump right in!

Quotes by Folorunsho Alakija, Vice Chair of Famfa Oil

• I never went to a university, and I am proud to say so because I don’t think I have done too badly.
• You need to decide what you want to achieve. Get rid of naysayers — those who say to you that you can’t do it. Never allow anyone to tell you it can’t be done. In my dictionary, ‘can’t’ doesn’t exist.
• You need to believe in your dream. Don’t give up when things get tough, just hang in there, stay focused, and be patient.
• We have grown past the stage of fairy-tale. As women, we have one common front and that is to succeed. We have to take the bull by the horns and make the change happen by ourselves.
• It’s essential to draw up a “things to do” list daily and set priorities in executing them, making sure that any unfinished task gets posted to the next day’s list.

Quotes by Strive Masiyiwa, Executive Chairman & Founder of the Econet Group

• Whether you’re a farmer, builder, or engineer, the opportunities are equal: Just add a little innovation.
• A vision on its own is not enough. Hard work & dedication is required to make that vision a reality.
• If you are working or running a business, you must set aside time and money to invest in your continued formal education and skills acquisition.
• You have to be very methodical in breaking down, the reason why something is successful. Most often it is not as simple as it looks.
• I started in business when I was 25 years old, with only $75, pooled between myself and a friend. We went around the suburbs fixing broken lights, and gates. We invested every cent, into doing bigger and bigger projects. For me, nothing has really changed in terms of those basic principles: you start with what you have, you do what you can, you invest what you get so that you can do bigger and bigger things.

Quotes by Lupita Nyong’o, Hollywood Actress

• You can’t eat beauty, it doesn’t sustain you. What is fundamentally beautiful is compassion, for yourself and those around you. That kind of beauty inflamed the heart and merchants the soul.
• No matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid.
• What I have learned for myself is that I don’t have to be anybody else; that myself is good enough; and that when I am being true to that self, then I can avail myself to extraordinary things. You have to allow for the impossible to be possible.
• You fail, and then what? Life goes on. It’s only when you risk failure that you discover things.
• We don’t get to pick the genes we want. There’s room in this world for beauty to be diverse.

Quotes by Tony Elumelu, Founder, The Tony Elumelu Foundation & Chairman, UBA

• Your idea can transform Africa. Let’s stop talking and let’s start doing.
• A true leader remains committed to a higher purpose that most others do not yet see. I have studied great people and one common thing I found among them is Legacy.
• Let us remind ourselves of the power of individuals and what potent capacities and opportunities lie in this. No one, but us will develop Africa.
• People management is key. Learn how to motivate your people. Be painstaking in choosing the right people.
• Africapitalism means we cannot leave the business of development up to our governments, donor countries, and philanthropic organizations alone.

Quotes by Chimamanda Adichie, Nigerian writer, speaker, and Activist

• I think you travel to search and you come back home to find yourself there.
• Of course, I am not worried about intimidating men. The type of man who will be intimidated by me is exactly the type of man I have no interest in.
• If you don’t understand, ask questions. If you’re uncomfortable about asking questions, say you are uncomfortable about asking questions and then ask anyway. It’s easy to tell when a question is coming from a good place. Then listen some more. Sometimes people just want to feel heard. Here’s to possibilities of friendship and connection and understanding.
• Never ever accept ‘Because You Are A Woman’ as a reason for doing or not doing anything.
• They themselves mocked Africa, trading stories of absurdity, of stupidity, and they felt safe to mock because it was a mockery born of longing and of the heartbroken desire to see a place made whole again.

Quotes by Patrick Awuah, Founder, and President of Ashesi University

• The people who have taken oaths and made promises, to be leaders and guardians of society, instead have disgraced us. I am challenging you to be the generation that can restore Africa’s honor.
• The ability to confront complex problems, and to design solutions to those problems; the ability to create is the most empowering thing that can happen to an individual.
• I think the current and future leaders of Africa have an incredible opportunity to drive a major renaissance on the continent. I believe that Africa has reached an inflection point with the march of democracy and free market across the continent. We have reached a moment from which can emerge a great society within one generation and it will depend on inspired leadership.
• It took a little bit of naivety to get started. I did not know how hard it was going to be. I think you just have to have this incredible confidence.
• I did have a lot of naysayers in Ghana but I didn’t have a lot of naysayers in America… when I decided to quit Microsoft people said ‘hey’ this is a great idea, this is what life is all about you have to chase your dreams and when you are ready to call us and we will see what we can do.

Quotes by Rapelang Rabana, South African Technology Entrepreneur

• Skills and business knowledge will only take you so far, your principles, values, as well as your personal growth outside the business, matter more than just what you know.
• The more congruent the business is to who you are as an individual and what you value, the deeper your capacity to persevere and outlast.
• It is important to be close to the people and things that anchor you. For me, it’s my parents, my family, my close friends to have a laugh with. Being reminded of who you are, and regardless of the circumstances, that someone thinks you are great.
• If you don’t know why you are doing it, you will battle to make the kind of long-term commitment that will see you through the challenges.
• Not everyone realizes that by not choosing, life chooses for you and that is never the ideal outcome. Those who become great are deliberately creating their life path as opposed to allowing life to happen to them.

Quotes by Aliko Dangote, Nigerian billionaire, and owner of the Dangote Group

• Endeavor to work as hard as possible to attain a new aim with each day that comes by. Don’t go to bed until you have achieved something productive.
• I built a conglomerate and emerged the richest black man in the world in 2008 but it didn’t happen overnight. It took me 30 years to get to where I am today. Youths of today aspire to be like me but they want to achieve it overnight. It’s not going to work. To build a successful business, you must start small and dream big. In the journey of entrepreneurship, a tenacity of purpose is supreme
• In whatever you do, strive to be the best at it.
• If you don’t have ambition, you shouldn’t be alive.
• Every morning when I wake up, I make up my mind to solve as many problems, before retiring home.

How SFAN is Advancing Leadership in Africa through Economic Growth

One of SFAN's mandates is to unleash the world's most remarkable economic renaissance on the continent. As part of our effort to achieve this, we pioneered Global Student Entrepreneurship Week and SFAN Breakfast Meeting to provide a space for innovators to spark meaningful conversations that lead to new funding opportunities, partnerships, and other exciting gigs.

SFAN's Economic Prosperity Projects

1. Student Entrepreneurship Week

Student Entrepreneurship Week prides itself on being an explosive growth-focused startup event with budding entrepreneurs learning from investors and entrepreneurs.

Since its inception, the project has convened over 10,000 guests both online and onsite, with students, budding entrepreneurs, and early career professionals learning from investors and entrepreneurs from Africa, Silicon Valley, the U.K., and beyond. As guests learn how to create a company and build a career, they meet the best mentors, investors, startup entrepreneurs, corporate professionals, diplomats, and community leaders ready to help them get started and succeed.

2. SFAN Business Breakfast Meeting

We established the SFAN Breakfast Meeting, previously known as "Future Executives Business Breakfast Meeting," to allow youth entrepreneurs to spark meaningful conversations with like-minded individuals in an unprecedented setting at non-prohibitive costs.

The breakfast has seen more than 500 guests gather to share pertinent business insights, with 18 unique business opportunities presented. SFAN Breakfast has become the go-to breakfast meeting for upwardly mobile youth entrepreneurs looking to access new opportunities and discuss fundamental business concepts, startup tactics, and growth strategies with thought leaders.

Unleashing Economic Prosperity in Africa: A Case Study of Kader

Kader Iboudu has been passionate about entrepreneurship since childhood. This desire to make a difference in his country pulled him from Burkina Faso to join SFAN's Student Entrepreneurship Week in 2019.

"SFAN's Student Entrepreneurship Week Pan-Africa made my dreams come true. Before the Student Entrepreneurship Week, I was a student with ideas. Now I have started my business," says Kader Oboudo from Burkina Faso.

Read Kader's Case Study.