Burkina Faso: Eldaa Ragnimwende Koama, a talented speaker who promotes Africa’s potential

Originally from Burkina Faso, Eldaa Ragnimwende Koama is a coach, public speaker, and event entrepreneur. Passionate about public speaking, the Burkinabe became known in 2021 during the Africa-France Summit with a historic speech in which she compared France-Africa relations to a “dirty old pot”. Her speech was broadcast several times by the media, and shared on social networks.

Though she is a computer engineer by training, Eldaa Ragnimwende Koama is best known today for her public speaking skills. She began to speak in public at the age of 9. Since then, she has taken part in a series of training courses and public speaking competitions which have sharpened her skills as a public speaker, in both French and English.  She uses her talent to address social issues facing Africans and to highlight the potential of African youth.

This is what she did during her speech to French President Emmanuel Macron at the Africa-France Summit in Montpellier in October 2021. She courageously pointed out some of France’s demeaning terms towards Africa, such as “development aid”. “It’s been almost a century that your aid has been going around Africa. It doesn’t work. Know that Africa will develop on its own, through local potential and that of the diaspora and certainly in interdependence with other nations of the planet, but above all through healthy, transparent and constructive collaboration,”she stated on the occasion.

She is involved in several NGOs, including the Association “Fenêtre d’Afrique”, of which she is the founder, and advocates, in particular, the involvement of young people in local development.

Sharpening her public speaking skills

It was at barely 9 years old, after a speech in her church, that she became passionate about public speaking. She then participated in several training courses to strengthen her skills. At university, she took part in a course on public speaking in English. She also had a passion for languages and sharpened her oratory skills in English. After participating in the public speaking competition “10 Minutes to Convince”, she took part in another public speaking competition in Ghana in 2015, but this time in English. In 2017 and 2018, she participated in a public speaking competition in Lebanon, from which she emerged, respectively, as a semi-finalist and a finalist.

In 2015, she became a public speaking coach, and three years later, a member of the jury at the National Debating Championship in Burkina Faso.

She also trained herself to become a moderator and master of ceremonies. While enrolled in her second year of university at Aube Nouvelle in Burkina Faso, where she was pursuing a degree in computer science, she was chosen in 2015 to conduct the ceremony of the 1st edition of the international conference-debate “African Model” initiated by the US Embassy in Ouagadougou. In 2018, she was given the opportunity to moderate a forum of businessmen and women from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in the Netherlands.

In 2020, she was appointed Master of ceremonies of the International Cotton and Textile Fair. An event marked by the presence of the President of Burkina Faso at the time and the representative of the African Development Bank (ADB). She gave a great performance, which was praised by the speakers.

Committed to capacity building for entrepreneurs

In addition to being a coach, she is also an entrepreneur. In 2020, she co-founded “Ouagadougou Chapter”, which belongs to the “Founder Institute”, the largest pre-seed accelerator in the world. Together with three other young Burkinabè entrepreneurs, she founded the NGO whose mission is to build on the experience of the Founder Institute and to offer project leaders in Burkina Faso the aptitudes, skills, values, and resources necessary to build profitable, sustainable, and competitive businesses.

In the same year, she also created “Improv’You,” an event and capacity-building agency located in Ouagadougou. The company offers coaching, training, and support for the organization and production of event content and business networking services

The company also organises networking meetings, which help to connect people who want to be entrepreneurs.

Eldaa Ragnimwende Koama holds a bachelor’s degree in “computer engineering” obtained in 2017, and also has a master’s degree in “management of information systems” from the University of Aube-Nouvelle.