There is no gain in saying that Africa as a continent is blessed with abundant resources and opportunities which has translated into the continent competing amongst the fastest growing global economies.
One of the key drivers of this milestone achievement is the entrepreneurship sector which is having a transformative effect across the continent and the youths are no doubt becoming the catalyst by way of starting their own business rather than waiting to be employed by someone.
Data statistics from the United Nations in 2015, show that Africa has 226 million youth aged 15-24 and one-fifth of the world’s youth population. This means that one out of every five youth on earth is from Africa. The African Youth population is forecasted to grow by 42% by 2030.
It is no secret that the youths are the future of the African continent. They are already emerging and will be the next thought leaders, creators, and innovators that will help galvanize the African continent to greater heights.
According to Marcello Schermer, Regional Manager for Africa at Seedstars World, a global startup competition. “Many governments, corporates, investors, and ecosystem builders have understood that, which is why you’re seeing co-working spaces, accelerators and all kinds of startup programs pip up everywhere from Morocco to Mali, to Ethiopia and Mozambique, and anywhere in between.”
Countries like Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and many others have taken center stage as some of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Contributing to the continent’s economic growth is a vastly growing number of hungry young entrepreneurs doing wonders across various sectors. Let’s get to know some of them:
- Temie Giwa-Tubosun – is a Nigerian-American health manager, founder of LifeBank (formerly One Percent Project), a business enterprise in Nigeria working to improve access to blood transfusions in the country.
In 2016 Ms. Giwa-Tubosun founded LifeBank is a logistics company that collects blood from registered blood banks and delivers it to patients in hospitals.
In the past four years, the company has distributed about 26,000 products to more than 10,000 patients in nearly 700 hospitals in Nigeria; Ms. Giwa-Tubosun’s effort is now celebrated at home and abroad as an epitome of social entrepreneurship—using business to solve a major society’s problem.
She has been featured in international media, including CNN, Bloomberg, The Guardian, and Newsweek. She has met some of the world’s richest persons, including Chinese billionaire and founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma, as well as Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg.
Young, savvy, and boisterous, the US-educated entrepreneur is on a mission to put a dent in the number of maternal deaths in her country.
- Christelle Kwizera – is a Rwandan social entrepreneur and the founder of Water Access Rwanda (WARwanda). Kwizera,26 has been involved in helping many Rwandan communities get access to both affordable and clean water.
Water Access Rwanda (WARwanda) is a social enterprise that is providing simple, affordable, and durable water solutions in East Africa. The company provides water filtration devices, products, and services aimed at finding and exploiting underground water, as well as providing full community water development schemes and training programmes.
According to Global Citizen, Kwizera plans is to eradicate water scarcity and to provide clean water for people in local communities. Currently, her organization has supplied 70,000 people in Rwanda with clean water. Kwizera’s efforts earned her the Cisco Youth Leadership Award at the 2020 Global Citizen Prize amongst other notable recognition and awards.
- Mike Endale – is an Ethiopian- American based in Washington, D.C, who is the principal at BLEN Corp, an information technology firm that leads the Ethiopia COVID-19 Emergency Tech Volunteer Task Team and assists Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health.
With the pandemic still ravaging the social-economic development of Africa, Mike Endale says he has recruited over 1,700 software engineers and has even created an Africa COVID-19 response toolkit.
Just like many developed countries are using GPS phone tracking software to track infected persons with COVID-19, Mike Endale and his team are involved in writing open-source code to create tools that could be used to raise public awareness of coronavirus risks and for contact tracing.
- Adetola Nola – Adetola Rilwan Nola,29, a Nigerian real estate businessman is the founder of Veritasi Homes and Properties Limited.
The passionate Nigerian entrepreneur who is on a mission to improve individuals’ wellbeing through the provision of affordable housing for low-income Nigerians, was listed as one of the Forbes Africa 120 Game Changers in 2019.
Nola started the business with a single employee but now has 18 full-time employees, 12,000 real estate consultants, and 1,300 realtors. Veritasi Homes and Properties has empowered a lot of Nigerians and is poised to achieve more this year by expanding its services beyond the shores of Nigeria; as the number of homeless Africans continues to rise.
- Verone Mankou – is a Congolese-born entrepreneur who has made significant strides as an entrepreneur and holds major achievements under his belt. Not only is he the founder of one of Congo’s most successful tech startups, VMK, but also the creator of the first African-made tablet (the Way-C) and smartphone (the Elikia).
Today, he has sold thousands of smartphones and tablets to his Congolese customers, and as his company grows, Verone is starting to explore new markets. He has set up a store in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. In 2015, he opened a $2 million factory in the capital Brazzaville, vowing to empower local talent with opportunities.
