Africa Doesn’t Need More Extraction — It Needs Partners. Why I Choose to Build, Not Take. By Anjo De Heus.

Over the past months, as I have worked closely with several African nations — from Zambia to the Democratic Republic of the Congo — a question keeps coming up. Ambassadors, ministers, and community leaders ask me:

“Anjo, why do you do this? Why Africa?”

It’s a fair question. Too many foreign actors come to the continent only when there is something to extract: minerals, oil, land, influence, or political leverage. The world rushes in when there is something profitable beneath the soil, but disappears when there is suffering above it.

Yet Africa’s future will not be changed by those who take.

It will be transformed by those who build.

A Turning Point: Peace Talks and Resource Deals

Recently, headlines celebrated a U.S.-brokered peace agreement between Rwanda and the DRC. On the surface, this is good news — stability is essential for progress. But beneath the diplomatic language lies a familiar pattern:

Peace, followed by access to mineral wealth.

Copper. Cobalt. Rare earth elements. The raw materials that fuel electric vehicles, batteries, and the global transition to clean energy.

The question is not whether international involvement is good or bad.
The question is: Who truly benefits?

Because if peace is negotiated for the sake of mining contracts while the local population continues to face poverty, limited healthcare access, and unstable infrastructure, then the cycle of dependence and underdevelopment continues.

Africa deserves more than transactional engagement.
It deserves transformational partnership.

What I’ve Seen on the Ground

In Zambia, I met nurses who were fully trained but unemployed because clinics lacked funding. In the DRC, I visited communities where a simple diagnostic test could save a life — yet the nearest functioning laboratory was hundreds of kilometers away.

These are not failures of the people.

They are failures of global priorities.

And they are solvable.

Why I Choose to Work Differently

When I founded 360Disruption, I made a simple decision:

We will not enter a country to extract value.
We will enter to create it.

Our work in #Africa is built on three pillars:

1. Healthcare access that reaches the forgotten

Through partnerships with Oasis Diagnostics and Oludent, we focus on saliva-based molecular testing — a revolutionary approach requiring:

• no needles
• no cold chain
• no specialized laboratories

This brings diagnostics to rural populations where people today walk miles just to know what is wrong with them.

2. Job creation through technology localization

Local manufacturing of diagnostic kits.
Training programs for nurses and youth.
Community-based telehealth hubs.

Africa does not need foreign companies to deliver finished products.
It needs partners willing to build industries inside African borders.

3. FDI that prioritizes human outcomes

Foreign direct investment must do more than finance infrastructure.
It must:

• create jobs
• transfer knowledge
• strengthen local systems
• generate long-term national capability

Anything less is exploitation dressed as opportunity.

The Truth About Africa’s Potential

Africa is not “rising” — Africa has been ready.

Ready for modern healthcare infrastructure.
Ready for localized innovation ecosystems.
Ready for manufacturing.
Ready to be at the center rather than the periphery of global development.

The world is beginning to understand Africa’s value — but primarily through the lens of minerals, extraction, and strategic leverage.

My mission is to help shift that lens.

What Real Partnership Looks Like

Real partnership looks like:

• helping a government create a national diagnostic program
• training thousands of local health workers
• building a manufacturing line that stays in the country
• transferring IP, knowledge, and economic opportunity
• ensuring rural populations receive the same care as capital cities

It looks like a future where Africa exports products, not raw materials.
Where African youth become biomedical engineers, not miners.
Where data powers health decisions, not guesswork.

This is the Africa I believe in — the Africa I know is possible.

A Message to Global Health Innovators

If you are a U.S., Canadian, or European health-tech innovator reading this:
Africa is not “too difficult” or “too early.”

It is the most important market of the next 30 years.

Not because of what lies beneath the ground —
but because of the talent, potential, and human capital above it.

And if your technology can solve a problem at scale,
Africa is where your innovation will have its greatest human impact.

I invite you to reach out.
Let’s build something meaningful.

My Answer to the Question: “Why Africa?”

Because I have seen what is possible.
Because the need is immense and immediate.
Because impact should not be a slogan — it should be measurable, real, and transformative.

And because I believe that true leadership means going where others won’t — not to extract, but to build.

Africa does not need another foreign visitor with a mining contract.
It needs partners with integrity, courage, and a willingness to invest in the lives of people.

That is the work I choose.
That is the future we can create — together.

Our doors are open, please contact us at africa@360disruption.com or visit 360disruption.com for more info and partnership opportunities.