Jack Ma, founder of the world's largest e-commerce trading platform Alibaba, gives a public lecture at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, July 20, 2017. (Xinhua/Chen Cheng)
Alibaba's founder and executive chairman, Jack Ma on his first trip to Africa met with a group of young entrepreneurs in Kenya's capital Nairobi on Thursday.
The 52-year-old in his capacity as special adviser to youth entrepreneurship and small businesses to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was welcomed by UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi, where he addressed a group of entrepreneurs on "the role of small businesses in global trade."
While addressing the young entrepreneurs at Nailab, Jack Ma said that he was in Africa to support entrepreneurs.
"Supporting entrepreneurs is my dream because I know how tough it is to be one," he said.
Alibaba's IPO in New York in 2014 set a record as the world's biggest public stock offering.
Ma made headlines at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January, when he told CNBC that America has no one to blame but itself for its economic issues.
Ma will proceed to Rwanda where he will attend the YouthConnekt Africa Summit where UNCTAD is partnering with the Government of Rwanda to champion youth technology entrepreneurship.
The event will bring together more than 1,500 participants from government, entrepreneurial and investor communities, multinationals, and startups shaping the African technological ecosystem, this according to UNCTAD.
