Youth Entrepreneurship: Universities and Youth conversation

Exploring Africa's Entrepreneurship Ecosystem

African countries are experiencing exponential growth in the youth population. However, economies are not creating new wage-earning jobs fast enough to absorb the growing workforce. This, coupled with the seasonal nature of labor demand, leaves many skilled youths in a crisis. Fostering entrepreneurship has become a key pillar to expanding employment opportunities for youth since it creates employment prospects for young people, builds ingenuity and resilience, and builds their demographic dividend but is yet to be fully harnessed. 

Governments, the private sector, higher education institutions, and communities realize existing gaps and opportunities and are making advancements toward creating a viable ecosystem for the socio-economic participation of the youth through entrepreneurial support. However, the efforts are unsustainable due to the short duration of youth empowerment initiatives, an excessive emphasis on supply-side training, insufficient or non-existent financial solution support, and a tenuous connection to viable market opportunities. With more youth joining the labor force, African countries have a window of opportunity to achieve both economic growth and livelihood development if the right social and economic investments and policies are made to support the youth entrepreneurial ecosystem. These investments will allow young entrepreneurs to create jobs, train other youth, make a difference in their communities, and create or expand markets by providing goods and services. They will also catalyze young African ingenuity by supporting and expanding their enterprises.

Join entrepreneurs and experts from Egerton University, Michigan State University, and some of Africa’s emerging entrepreneurs through the Alliance for African Partnership (AAP) Public Dialogue to discuss and appreciate the challenges surrounding youth and entrepreneurship and opportunities for the sustainable development of the youth entrepreneurial ecosystem. The session will cover the strategies to support youth in entrepreneurship, building equitable synergies, sustainable investments in youth entrepreneurship, and policy dynamics around supporting youth entrepreneurship, among others                                       

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