CAF President Ahmad Ahmad has made an impassioned appeal for industry to use football in Africa as the major vehicle to foster development, insisting it is the main tool that rallies the people on the continent.
The leader of Africa's football governing body delivered the powerful message on Friday evening when addressing some 450 African and European leaders at a business summit held in the French city of Nice.
Ahmad made the appeal when delivering the closing address at the Choiseul Africa Business Forum that brought together some of the most influential decision-makers from the two continents to exchange ideas on promoting business in Africa.
Among people who attended this year's summit are heads of state, ministers from various countries, lawmakers, senior representatives of some of African and Europe's big businesses and leaders of some of the leading insitutions on both continents.
Those attending this year's event include Amadou Gon Coulibaly, Ivorian Prime Minister, Fatma Samoura, the FIFA Secretary General, Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (UN), Pierre Gattaz, President of BusinessEurope and Rania Al -Mashat, Egyptian Minister of Tourism.
Cameroonian superstar Samuel Eto'o and Christian Estrosi, the Mayor of Nice, were also present when Ahmad delivered the address to close the two-day meeting by urging businesses in Africa and Europe to use football to engage with the people of the continent.
“Football makes participants better citizens of the world learning cohesion, fair play, playing by the rules, sacrifice and interdependence,” Ahmad said in the closing speech of the Choisuel Africa Business Forum.
"Football restores hope and elevates societies,” the CAF President concluded by inviting business to consider sponsoring African football as a vehicle for growth - a remark that drew wild applause from participants.
The Choiseul Africa Business Forum is an annual event to promote rapprochement between Africa and Europe with the platform dedicated to sharing experiences and decrypting trends of business in Africa.
The Institut Choiseul, an independent French think tank, started the forum five years ago to get top businesses in Europe engage directly with key decision makers in Africa as well as start-ups in Africa to promote growth.
The organizers focused this year's forum on the dynamics of business growth in Africa that gave key speakers to address various topics in operational, multisectoral working sessions and plenary conferences.
Senegalese general secretary of FIFA, Samoura was one of the panelists on the topic "Female leadership: when Africa sets the example." which was held on Friday.
In total, 49 countries were represented at the forum held in Nice.