Bulls n Bears Entrepreneurship Zone :: How nine young African women are solving the continent’s youth unemployment problem

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Africa’s population will double within the next three decades to an
estimated 2.5 billion, with one billion being youth. According to United
Nations data the continent is expected to account for more than half of the
world’s population growth between 2015 and 2050.

The International Monetary Fund stated last year in a blog post that by
2035 sub-Saharan Africa, for example, will have more working-age people than
the rest of the world’s regions combined.

Various organisations have commented that this population bulge is an
unprecedented crisis in the making if these young African men and women are
uneducated or unemployed.

Not everyone believes that it is an unavoidable catastrophe. For a group of
young women, all below the age of 23, it is a call to action to start
creating jobs.

Alina Karimamusama, Amanda Jojo, Farah Emara, Joan Nalubega, Kondwani
Banda, Lourena Bundi, Melissa Bime, Nomena Andrianantoandro and Vanessa
Ishimwe have all been selected to be part of the group of 20 Anzisha Prize
fellows of 2018, an annual entrepreneurship development programme offered by
the African Leadership Academy and the Mastercard Foundation.

“I don’t think the future holds anything for African youth, unless they
create it,” says Ishimwe (22). “They say the best way to predict or foretell
the future is by creating it.”

What all these women have in common is an understanding of their own
responsibility to shape the continent in the next few years and spotting an
opportunity where others could possibly see only obstacles.


Empowering women in Zambia with business skills


For Alina Karimamusama (21), from Zambia, the challenges of gender equality
and the economic marginalisation of women in her country drove her to set up
Youth Arise – an organisation empowering women with computer, communication
and entrepreneur skills. She was only 16 at the time.

Once trained, the women are connected to local businesses for
apprenticeships and on-the-job-training. Those interested in
entrepreneurship are given space to sell their products at local markets.

“I always say creativity is the new gold of Africa, and I worship the
concept of my people using initiative, skill or talent, passion and
creativity to turn their ideas into an income.  So many youth are refining
that creative gold into entrepreneurship, and together we will reduce the
level of unemployment in African countries,” she says.


Providing education and entrepreneurship training to refugees in Uganda


Vanessa Ishimwe’s non-profit organisation, Youth Initiative for Development
in Africa (which she started in 2014 when she was only 18 years old),
educates the youth and creates job opportunities in a Ugandan refugee camp.
She credits her knack for entrepreneurship to the fact that she has always
had a spirit of learning – whether from someone younger, her peers, or a
mentor. Ishimwe was born in Rwanda, but fled to Uganda with her mother
following the death of her father at the age of nine and grew up in Kyaka
refugee camp in Uganda. Her own experience is what motivated her to create
opportunities for other refugees.

“If you need to learn – do it with all your heart. If you are practicing
running as an athlete – do it will all your heart. When the African youth
get up and start doing what they are supposed to do, but with all their
heart, then Africa won’t just have good enterprises, but also great
leaders,” she says.


Making sure there is enough blood supply to save lives in Cameroon


Melissa Bime (22), founder of INFIUSS in Cameroon, says she is optimistic
about the opportunities that are currently available for entrepreneurial
youth. “Never before have I been in an environment where everyone is so
determined to – one way or another – solve different problems or simply
prepare themselves to become the next generation of African leaders.”

INFIUSS is an online blood bank and digital supply chain platform. Bime, a
nursing graduate, founded it after she witnessed too many patient deaths due
to the lack of compatible blood for life-saving transfusions whilst working
in a Cameroonian hospital.

“I grew up in a home where a single mother single-handedly raised my
sisters and I. My sisters both went on to be very successful in their
respective fields, and so I had positive role models to look up to. One of
the most important lessons I learnt in my early childhood was to go after
what I wanted as no one was going to provide that for me,” she says.


Linking artists with clients, boosting street art along the way


For Farah Emara, co-founder of Jidar Wall Art in Egypt, the continent’s
breath-taking landscapes and vast wealth of natural resources are testament
to the potential that it holds. “We can go places with the right investment
in Africa’s young entrepreneurs,” the 20-year old artist and student from
Cairo says. Jidar Wall Art is creating a network and sales channel in Egypt
for artists. When Emara looks at a city wall in the streets of Cairo, she
sees a blank canvas that could elevate an artist’s career.

Farah has signed on 30 clients and, along with her business partners, plans
to grow the venture even further.


A South African coffee shop that wants to focus on mental wellness


Amanda Jojo (21) is the founder of the Trea Garden, a coffee- and teahouse
in an urban suburb in South Africa. Along with finding start-up finances,
she lists having access to coaches and mentors as her biggest challenge as a
young entrepreneur. Her age is another obstacle she has had to overcome due
to perceptions in the marketplace: “The second biggest challenge is people
not taking me seriously in my industry, because I am a black 21-year old
owning and managing this establishment.”

Jojo believes that Trea Garden is more than just about selling food and
beverages – it is about mental wellness as well. Jojo herself has had to
battle mental illness due to circumstances in her past. She dreams of being
able to create a space where people can receive free mental help.


Preservative-free fruit juices for healthier lifestyles in Madagascar


For Nomena Andrianantoandro (21), a life-long passion to promote healthier
consumption patterns in her home country, Madagascar, led to the creation of
BOISSA, a company that produces healthy fruit juices. BOISSA drinks are made
from 100% natural ingredients, without dyes or preservatives and are
hand-pressed.

As a main objective, BOISSA hopes to achieve greater awareness around good
nutritional habits.


Filling a gap for kids parties in Luanda, Angola


Lourena Bundi (21), founder of L&C Buffet Infantil, was asked to arrange a
baby shower for her cousin in 2015, in Angola. It immediately occurred to
her that there were a limited variety of party planners for parties for
young children and used her organisational and creative skills to bridge
that gap.

She manages a team who executes, on average, two to three events per week.
Since opening in 2015, L&C Buffet Infantil has organised over 199 events in
Luanda.


Selling malaria-repellent organic soap in Uganda


A hunger to create a solution for her most painful childhood experience is
what made Joan Nalubega, the 21-year founder of Union-Ganics (Uganics), the
entrepreneur she is today. As a young child, living in an orphanage in
Uganda, Nalubega at one stage felt “ready for death” due to suffering from
malaria. “My survival was my motivation and influence to start Uganics,” she
says of her company that produces anti-malaria products, such as a
long-lasting mosquito-repellent soap.

Early the Uganics team realised that the primary target group would not be
able to afford their products, even if it was sold at zero mark-up. They
adapted their strategy to subsidise the product by selling it to high-end
safari lodges and hotels with their ecologically and socially conscious
guests as an organic mosquito repellent soap, with social benefits.

This idea has proven to be so successful that the company now has to raise
funds to more equipment to meet the need.

“It is not easy being an entrepreneur. It requires a lot of courage in the
beginning, persistence, patience and most importantly, believing in
yourself,” she says.


A digital magazine writing authentic African culture and human interest
stories


Kondwani Banda (21), founder of Mainstream Media – a free, fully
interactive digital magazine in Zambia – admits that the going does get
tough as a young entrepreneur. “There are days when you will feel like you
have no idea what you are doing. Or you will feel defeated: even more so
when you are a young mother such as myself. You have to push twice as hard
and work twice as smart, to be that success story in a world that often
looks down on you.”

Banda is a media and communications’ major at the University of Zambia and
aims to tell authentic African stories through the magazine, which focuses
mainly on culture, entertainment and human interest stories. Mainstream
Media now has 500 registered subscribers and a social media following of
15,000.--Howwemadeitinafrica

 



Lourena Bundi

 

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