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Obama In Kenya: 'Africa Is On The Move'

President Obama delivers a speech at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit at the United Nations Compound in Nairobi on Saturday.
Evan Vucci AP
President Obama delivers a speech at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit at the United Nations Compound in Nairobi on Saturday.

President Obama, declaring that Africa is a continent "on the move," began the first full day of his visit to Kenya by addressing an entrepreneurship summit in Nairobi.

The president announced a billion dollars of support for new business in Africa at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit.

As NPR's Gregory Warner reports, the President has made investing in young African entrepreneurs a focal point of his foreign policy in the region.

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"Africa is on the move," Obama said at the opening of the conference where he used the traditional Swahili greeting jambo.

It's Obama's first trip to Kenya since becoming president and the first-ever visit to the east African nation by a sitting U.S. president. Even so, it is Obama's fourth visit to the continent, the most by any president.

Kenya is the birthplace of Obama's father and the biggest economy in eastern Africa.

"Africa is one of the fastest growing regions in the world," he said.

"Entrepreneurship offers a positive alternative to the ideologies of violence and division that can all too often fill the void when young people don't see a future for themselves," the president said.

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"You don't have to look a certain way, or be of a certain faith or have a certain last name in order to have a good idea," he said.

Gregory reports: "As on previous trips to Africa the president brought a coterie of American venture capitalists and would-be investors, with a special focus on encouraging African women entrepreneurs."

The president arrived in Nairobi on Friday, where he was greeted by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his half-sister, Auma Obama.

At a meeting with Obama on Saturday, Kenyatta decried the terrorism that has plagued his country in recent years, calling it "a global threat that knows no boundaries."

"No single country can deal with this problem alone, we need to partner," Kenyatta said.

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