Barack Obama says Africa is a continent ‘on the move’

Barack Obama has heralded Africa as a continent "on the move" at the opening of a US-sponsored business summit in the capital of Kenya, the African nation to which he has deep family ties.

“Africa is one of the fastest growing regions of the world,” the US president said in Nairobi. “People are being lifted out of poverty.”

Mr Obama’s visit to Kenya - the first by a sitting US president - has been keenly anticipated in a country that views him as a son. The president’s late father was born in Kenya and many family members still live here, including his elderly step-grandmother.

"This is personal for me," Mr Obama said. "There's a reason why my name is Barack Hussein Obama. "

Much of the president’s visit is focused on boosting business and security ties with Kenya, a growing economy grappling with the threat of terrorism, most notably from the Somalia-based al-Shabab network.

Nearly two dozen US politicians and 200 American investors have joined the president on his trip, which also includes a stop in Ethiopia.

Speaking at the Global Entrepreneurship summit on Saturday, Mr Obama announced more than $1 billion (£901million) of new commitments from the US government, as well as American banks, foundations and philanthropists.

Half of the money will be earmarked to support women and young people, who Mr Obama says face bigger obstacles when trying to start businesses.

“If half of your team is not playing, you’ve got a problem,” he said, referring to women being excluded from the formal economy.

Obama hosted the inaugural entrepreneurship summit at the White House in 2010. This year’s conference is the first to be held in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, who co-hosted the summit with Mr Obama, lamented that the continent’s security and other challenges, including the 2013 attack on a Nairobi mall, had created a negative reputation. He said he hoped Obama’s visit would help change the narrative about Kenya and Africa.

“Africa is the world’s newest and most promising frontier of limitless opportunity,” Kenyatta said. “Gone are the days when the only lens to view our continent was one of despair and indignity.”

After his speech, Mr Obama toured an innovation fair highlighting the work of vendors working with his Power Africa initiative, which aims to double sub-Saharan access to electricity.

As he looked at solar panels and posed for photos, Mr Obama acknowledged concerns that the programme’s progress had been slow, but said it would soon help millions and that building power plants took time, even in the US.

Mr Obama arrived in Nairobi late on Friday and spent the evening reuniting with his father’s family. Security was tight in the Kenyan capital, with some of the city’s normally bustling streets closed to traffic and pedestrians.

US and Kenyan flags lined the main road from the airport and billboards bearing Mr Obama’s picture dotted the city.

Before a formal meeting with Kenyatta on Saturday afternoon, Mr Obama was due to lay a wreath at the site of the deadly 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi.

Agencies