All Quotes

"We have no problem with the word “merit,” but we have a very clear and simple point: the word “merit” in our Constitution is in Article 34; the principles of solidarity and equality are in Articles 2 and 3, and the point is very clear. (p. 97)"

"Winners normally always try to rewrite history, and you have tried to rewrite the history of the last decade. (p. 97) (Addressing Giorgia Meloni)"

"[...] during the election campaign, Letta was unable to give a single reason why people should vote for the Democratic Party, only reasons not to vote for the others."

"Letta is only a transitional leader for a temporary government [the Letta government] with a specific agenda. He will not be useful a second time. For the future, I imagine Gianni Cuperlo as party secretary [the Democratic Party] and Matteo Renzi at Palazzo Chigi."

"I am happy for Enrico Letta. I hope that the new Prime Minister will give a boost to the economy because we desperately need it and the emergencies we face are reflected in some very worrying figures. Continuing like this, with youth unemployment at 35 percent, means there is no hope left. Letta will certainly tackle these issues with rigor."

"One thing is sure: if you have the right cast, you have a good film. Because I have an important message to pass, I have to go for actors that people will like to watch, those they can easily connect to and listen to."

"I’ve dedicated my career to improving public health and tackling some of the developing world’s most difficult health issues"

""However, we cannot defeat tuberculosis without new tools. I look forward to helping TB Alliance advance its mission, particularly at this important time in its history when it has a very promising late-stage pipeline and is poised for impact"."

"I was so impressed...in my 35 years of development work, I have never seen a cleaner or more well run hospital in any of the developing countries I've visited - and I've visited many. It is also a testament that with the right leadership one can do so much with very little."

"It's not a given that a developing country would be doing research. We need to sustain treatment programmes and the cost of the programmes, and that requires research."

"“We had to use that language. Nobody was going to pay attention if we just pitched it as yet another health problem.”"

"“Just because somebody’s coming with a briefcase full of money doesn’t make them your superior.”"

"“Nobody does anything by one’s self — it’s a group effort.”"

"Knowing what you want to do and having excellent evidence will turn even a deaf ear the other way around."

"Poverty, gender inequality and sexual violence, and the failure in some cases to get treatment for infected homosexual men were some of the fundamental drivers of the HIV/AIDS epidemic."

"“our greatest strength lies in our people.""

"Let’s build the rails together and unlock Africa’s boundless potential."

"I personally believe in just doubling down and getting the work done which is why I’ve been busy building the infrastructure, the technology, building the company."

"As it is, M-Pesa works amazingly well in Kenya but it cannot work in Nigeria. Our goal is to make it easy for you in Lagos to sell to somebody in Kenya, they pay with M-Pesa and it comes to your account in Nigeria here or you send money to your supplier in Kenya and they receive it seamlessly. That’s our goal, to make it simple to accept payments globally."

"When we started the company, our goal was to build a superhighway infrastructure for payments in Africa; our goal has not changed. We believe very strongly in enterprise payments, in ensuring that you build best-in-class technology and infrastructure for top-range merchants across Africa – both local and global."

"We have worked on our corporate governance, infrastructure, compliance system and that’s what we are going to keep doing as a company and part of that is why we brought Mitesh in."

"We believe in the digital future of Africa. So we have to build for long-term sustainability. We have to build with patience, build for scale, and at the same time build for the myriad, multiple, fragmented, permanent types. That’s what we have to do and that’s what we’ve done."

"If you were to ask me what my goal is, it is to build the largest private tech company from Africa that is profitable and sustainable."

"As a founder, you have to learn to operate like a firefighter and an architect, sometimes both in the same day."

"Leadership can’t be stagnant. You have to evolve. A company can need a different kind of leadership at different times."

"You have to build the people. You have to build the opportunity. You have to build everything alongside you."

"It wasn’t just about building a company. We were driven by a mission to create something greater than ourselves—a platform that could fundamentally change how financial transactions happen in Africa and beyond."

"At the end of the day, it’s about creating opportunities and making a difference. That’s what drives us, and that’s what will continue to guide us as we grow."

"Human resources mean everything when it comes to building a successful technology company, and we are lucky that Nigeria has an expansive pool of talent to support our operations."

"Trust is the business we’re in. We’ve been working tirelessly to regain that trust"

"Among the various pursuits that engage the human mind, there are few so attractive as Geology, none so important as Revelation. Each of these two studies has an interest peculiar to itself. The one is chiefly concerned about the world in which we are living: the other about the world to which we are hastening."

"“Spreading the culture of quality is the first calling card of public service…”"

"I’ll never forget the moment, the counselor pressed my face against a window and said, ‘anytime you need motivation, you look outside your window. That was a turning point for me."

"My experience building the rocket coupled with my mechanical engineering aptitude test results and acceptance to the Illinois Institute of Technology, I knew mechanical engineering was the field for me."

"Execution beats entitlement."

"We must not reduce people’s stories to the wealth of their parents. It flattens ambition, and it ignores the daily choices, failures, pivots, and sacrifices that truly define success."

"Curiosity compounds faster than you think."

"Character and reputation creates doors."

"She would rather be an old man's darling than a young man's warling."

"I arrived with tremendous determination: I had to continue Noble’s work, not imitating it, because people are irreplaceable and each one has his own style. But I did have to respect his principles."

"We never thought that, in democracy, doing our job would bring such harsh consequences. We never thought that the persecution and attacks could acquire such brutal methods. They have used the full force of the state against us."

"When I was preparing the new school of architecture, I got into a discussion with a group of friends, most of them architects, about some fundamental questions: what do we mean by a school of architecture, what do we mean by an architectural education, and how can we better adapt architectural education to the conditions of the world today? The world has changed a lot this century, mainly because of vast expansion of computing power. Students who are now choosing to study architecture grew up in a digital world. But education at most architectural schools is still rooted in the 19th century, and sometimes in the 20th century, but certainly not in the 21st century."

"My generation was born after Second World War and was determined to change the world. It was changing already but we wanted it to change faster. However, today's youngest generation are told by their parents that the world will never be as nice as it was for them. They tend to think negatively about their future. They are concerned about issues like global warming and gender equality, but they often lack the determination or the confidence to do something about it. I want to stimulate them to have courage. That is why I tell my students that I am jealous of them: they have a century ahead of them which they can shape according to their dreams."

"The Académie des Beaux-Arts teaches that architecture is the mother of all arts, but in my opinion it is much more than that. It goes beyond designing objects, for it is also about sociology, politics, geography, economics, law etc. As architects, we are confronted with all these disciplines in every project. We need to know precisely what the conditions of a project are. We have to bring these disciplines together into a synthesis that addresses all the relevant issues. This synthesis generates an idea, and this idea is the project. The idea is more than the building, because it deals with all the scales involved from the smallest details to the urban space. That is why I consider the architectural discipline as unique. It can help a company to reorganize itself, or it can help a city to function better. It can really change the world."

"God is the cornerstone of everything for me. Sometimes patients ask us to pray with them and we’re happy if we can help them feel the comfort and power they need, no matter what religion they are."

"I always seek a human connection. Without it, being a doctor would lose much of its sense of purpose."

"As we heal others we heal ourselves, life is pointless if we don’t contribute."

"There are no necessary connections with the acquisition of Stabus Ghana, which will now be known as Treepz Ghana. But after a successful seed round, we immediately started thinking of how scaleable the indigenous name Plentywaka would be around Africa and the rest of the world."

"We knew we needed a less complex name for the business so that eventually, it’s easy to pronounce and widely accepted by all, irrespective of language and culture."

"Our acquisition of Stabus, one of Ghana’s leading mobility startups, is a step to further our ambition of building the largest shared mobility platform in Africa. Over the next two years, we have a Pan-African growth plan which has started, and we plan to expand into 6 African countries in that time."