Investors and organisers of the YouthConnekt Africa Summit that took place in Kigali from July 19-21, aim to raise $60 million to finance innovative projects by young entrepreneurs as part of efforts to create 10 million jobs before 2020.

The event, which was organised in collaboration with United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), is in its fifth edition.

It brought together 2,500 delegates including heads of states, motivational speakers, celebrities, business leaders, investors, young innovators and development partners.

Under the theme From Potential to Success the conference marked the launch of the YouthConnekt Africa Hub and Empowerment Fund that will identify and finance business projects for young entrepreneurs.

Baraka Ochieng, programme analyst at UNDP regional office for Africa, told Rwanda Today that YouthConnekt has demonstrated the potential to empower young Africans in different sectors.

“As Africa, one of the challenges faced by youth is unemployment, lack of entrepreneurship opportunities; lack of space in decision making within government and leadership.

“So this platform provides many opportunities for the youth to be empowered. One of the goals is to create 10 million jobs,” Mr Ochieng said.

On the creation of the YouthConnekt Africa Hub and Empowerment Fund, participants will have to agree on a model of outsourcing pledged funds and projects. Projects that promote Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are likely to secure funds from the UNDP.

The Empowerment Fund seeks to raise $60 million before 2020 to finance key agendas like creating jobs for more than 10 million people across Africa.

Through the created job-connect sessions in the summit, companies were expected to create different partnerships that would result in employment opportunities.
One of the exhibitors was Elevate.co from Zimbabwe, which is a platform supported by Econet Wireless Africa, the Zimbabwean Telecommunication Group.

The three-month old platform, links young innovators with business developers and potential investors. The firm wants to set up the platform in all African countries.

“We have received 100,000 business projects since starting up and we are trying to match the entrepreneurs with key investors,” said Jonathan Neshena Head of Youth at Elevate.co.
Youth and ICT Minister, Jean Philbert Nsengimana, challenged the youth to profile their business projects and pitch them to investors and development partners.

The online platform Africaconnect.org has been created to collect business ideas from young entrepreneurs.

Source: The East African