Interview Youth Connekt Africa “To connect the young people to social economic transformation”
The pan-African version of Youth Connekt Rwanda, Youth Connekt Africa aims to capitalize on the continent’s youth by connecting African youth to economic and social transformation. With a particular focus on women. Explications with Oulie Keita executive director of Youth Connekt Africa.
Tell us about yourself and Youth Connekt Africa…
My name is Oulie Keita and I am the executive director of Youth Connekt Africa based in Kigali, Rwanda. I am a woman, a mother and an entrepreneur in my spare time. I have been working in development for the last 17years, working on youth empowerment, women empowerment, peace and security processes, particularly for the youth and women across the continent. I have a master in nonprofit management and a bachelor in international relations from the University of Maryland in the USA. I have been working in Africa for the past 15years out of the 17 years of my professional experience and working on these issues, so I am happy to be here today.
« For the past decade we’ve made some great strikes to really make the business world women friendly»
So Youth Connekt Africa is a span of all Youth Connekt Rwanda which was created by the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame in 2012 to address the demographic dividend issue for rwandan youth. he knew back then that the youth was an opportunity for him to really develop the country. The youth as you know are the majority of the African country’s population across the world. So he realized that if we want to harness the demographic dividend in Africa we have to really invest in our young people, so he started what we call Youth Connekt Africa in partnership with the UNDP, the UN development organization, the Kigali UNDP office. So they really worked together as equal partners to really harness this young demographic in Rwanda. It became such a success story that African countries across the African Union (AU) have asked the government of Rwanda to extend this to their countries. So from a single country in 2012, we are now in 25 countries and we are also really dedicated to connecting more African countries. We want all of the 54 member states to become part of Youth Connekt by 2025. Our whole vision is to connect the young people to social economic transformation and we would like to touch as many young people as possible by the realization of the AU agenda 2063 as well as the sustainable development goals 2030. That’s our vision and we are on a mission to do that across the continent. That is what Youth Connekt Africa does.
What are the difficulties met by women entrepreneurs and how do you support them?
As you know for the past decade we’ve made some great strikes to really make the business world women friendly. But we still run into roadblocks when it comes to women entrepreneurs, young entrepreneurs. So we are trying to find ways to connect these young women entrepreneurs to economic transformation, we look for funding for example, funding opportunities, we look for investor across the globe who can come and support these young women in whatever they are doing, we use the digital economy, the digital world, to connect them to peers, to the world, to people who are like minded across the globe so that they can see that they are not alone, so that they can see that if they network, meet with the right people, if they have the right mentors they they can really develop their businesses whether it is physical business or digital business. So we are trying to use these digital momentum to build the skills of the young women, the young entrepreneurs so that they have the digital skills to really benefit from their businesses.where they are sitting, they don’t have to travel across the globe to go and sell their stuff they can use the internet, the power of internet, they can connect and really develop themselves, their skills and also sell, actually make profits in their innovations. So that’s what we are trying to be, we are trying to be a connector for these young entrepreneurs across the continent and we have partners that we work with to do this, right now we have a partnership with HP foundation. HP is training our young entrepreneurs to develop their skills, their digital skills so that their businesses can be more profitable.
Is it in this context that you have established a partnership with Digital Africa?
We try to really identify partners such as Digital Africa for example who are active and on the continent who can actually meet these young entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs, give them the skills, the encouragement, the tools and the network they need so that they can have some income, they can generate income from it. So the digital economy is very important for Youth Connekt Africa and we are working with our partners like Digital Africa to do so.
« We spend a lot of time over and over again to make sure that these women, these young entrepreneurs are not left behind because they are women»
So as you know digital africa is also endeavoring to really connect young africans to social-economic transformation and that is our vision as well so they have been active lately especially post-covid trying to identify these young entrepreneurs, trying to connect them to transformation. they provide digital skills training, they provide networking opportunities, safe funding together with digital africa we that is the way to really really make some good strikes in this post covid recovery for young people who have lost so much during the covid and that’s the reason we entered this partnership because we have a common vision, we want to catch as many young entrepreneurs as possible on the continent especially in the francophone you know, South Africa, Lagos, big cities, Nairobi, have benefited, these young entrepreneurs have benefited so much but if you go to francophone countries like well Rwanda is not francophone but people speak French in Rwanda, so if you go to countries like Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Rwanda,… you see that the need is there, we need to work with these young entrepreneurs so that they catch up with theirs peers in Nairobi, Lagos, Johannesburg. That is what we are trying to do in this space with digital Africa.
To conclude, why do you think it is necessary, again and again, to accompany women in the digital world? And how to better accompany them?
I think women particularly need to be supported in tech in Africa because they have so much burden, so many challenges facing them. When you talk about for example the work, family and professional struggles, they have to go through everything, not only they are first of all women, so that’s a strike against them, they have to deal with being a wife, being a mother and they have also to deal with the business world and with all of these aspects that they already face they have to overcome the business world challenges that they are faced with. So women entrepreneurs have to be mentored a lot, they have to be really supported with skills over and over again, with capacity building, digital skills training to capacitate them over and over again to ensure that they are not left behind because they have challenges different from their counterpart men. they face things as a woman, a mother, wife and entrepreneur. So they have to be continuously capacitated to be relevant in their market, have access. That is why we spend a lot of time over and over again to make sure that these women, these young entrepreneurs are not left behind because they are women.
For more information : www.youthconnektafrica.org
