Singapore Made Me Rethink What’s Possible

I travelled to Singapore for the first time in November 2025, and I was truly blown away by how much progress the country has made in such a short time. I was at the Singapore FinTech Festival speaking on the Founders Peak stage, and being up there made me feel a way I have never felt before. Something shifted in me.

When I came back, my friends kept asking how Singapore was. Every time, I found myself going into a long monologue about everything I saw, the people I met, and the progress the country had achieved. Eventually, I realised I needed to write down my thoughts.

Growing up in Europe and going back to Africa every now and then, progress in places like the UK, France, the Netherlands, and, to a certain extent, America (it’s 249 years old) always felt slow and centuries in the making. These countries have existed for so long that comparing Africa sometimes leaves me feeling somewhat. I often wondered whether we would ever see Africa make progress in a shorter timeframe, simply because the countries we compare ourselves to have had such long histories. Ireland might be the exception, but for most European nations, it has taken centuries to become what they are.

Then I went to Singapore, and my view on the speed of progress changed drastically.

In the 1960s, Singapore was an island left to its own devices. They tried to unite with Malaysia, which shares an island with them, but that did not work out. If you read Singapore’s history, you will see that the country had no natural resources. It had a port, but not much else. Yet Singapore has shocked the world with how much progress it has made over the past 60 years.

And it is purely down to leadership.

In 1965, when Singapore became independent, its GDP per capita was around $4,000 in today’s dollars. By 2024, it had grown to about $91,000. That is one of the highest GDP per capita figures in the world. This level of progress in just two generations is extraordinary. When you study what happened, it becomes clear that Singapore’s leaders made deliberate choices. Many people know the name Lee Kuan Yew. They had a plan, they committed to it, and they executed it with discipline. Today, Singapore is prospering because of that intentionality.

After my trip, I felt confident that Africa can also progress as quickly as Singapore did. We have so much working in our favour. We have natural resources, abundant sunlight, arable land, a vast population, and many other advantages. What we do not have, and seriously lack, is leadership. We have a lot of unserious leaders. But I can feel, or maybe it is just me, that a tide is shifting. Over the past three to four years, I have sensed a different vibe across the continent. I think our leaders are waking up and realising that something has to change.

One thing that works against us is the size of the continent. Africa is huge. Big in size and big metaphorically. We have 54 countries, which is too many. There is significant work to be done to make the continent feel smaller and more unified. Some of that work has already started through initiatives like the AfCFTA and other deliberate efforts. We are far from where we need to be, but when you look at the data, the story of Africa is slowly changing.

I came back from Singapore full of hope, knowing that we can bring meaningful change to Africa in our lifetime. Good, deliberate leadership is top of the list, and it will allow progress to happen faster. If Singapore can achieve what it did in two generations, we can too, but we need to sort out our leadership challenges. The events currently unfolding in Tanzania and Cameroon are not helping, but there are signs of progress elsewhere on the continent.

I am 36 now. Two generations from now, I will be 86. I doubt I will still be running around at that age. I will probably not be around in the third and subsequent generations, but so much can be done between now and then. This is why I am committing my career to the progress of Africa, its people, and its diaspora, so that Africa and Africans can be our own version of Singapore in the next 60 years.

Thanks for reading

Hi 👋 

My name is Joe Kinvi, and I’m the founder of Borderless, a global investment platform. Next year, I’m inviting people to invest just £1,000 a year to increase funding available to Black founders in the UK and receive significant tax benefits. Read more about it in my last article here and sign up to stay in touch here.