Youth+ Africa: Molding Africa’s Youth

Kenya is currently facing a youth unemployment crisis, with statistics showing that 11.42 million of Kenyan youth are unemployed. Along with a 40 rate rate of absorption of the 50,000 graduates into the workforce every year, there is a cause for concern about the future.

Keen to address this looming crisis, Freddy Mulli founded Redd Dot Consulting Group, a company intent on working with start-ups & SMEs with the goal of increasing their profitability & growth to the extent they are able to absorb larger quantities of students entering the workplace each year. To work towards achieving this, Redd Dot Consulting Group will be organising the Youth+ Nairobi Conference to be held 22 through 24 June, as a platform to bring together 1000 young leaders and entrepreneurs in Nairobi to build their capacity for successful implementation of their social enterprises.

“The biggest problem we have is that there are more graduates leaving school than there are opportunities for them in the job market,” says Mulli, who is also the Team Leader for the Youth+ Conference. “We want to improve SME’s and ensure that they grow and last longer in their respective industry sectors, thus creating a larger employment pool to absorb the youth leaving educational institutions.”

In 2014, Redd Dot conducted a research project to assess the state of unemployment among the youth in Nairobi: targeting 761 start-up founders, entrepreneurs who had run businesses for over a year and those with entrepreneurial ideas and aspirations; all aged between 18 and 25 years. According to their findings, 91.9 percent of young entrepreneurs were aware that most start up businesses fail within a year of starting and 46.1 percent attributed this failure to lack of proper planning.

The three day conference will allow participants to engage with speakers from various industries and acquire training and mentorship in areas such as project design, fundraising, team leadership, technology in social enterprise and sustainability in business.

Nicole Shiundu, an alumnus of the Women in Finance, Entrepreneurship and Leadership (WIFEL) program and also the Head of Finance for Youth+ says that mentorship is an integral part of the conference. “Society portrays the youth as being impatient and not willing to work long enough to see their businesses succeed. But in my experience, young people have a great potential and curiosity which makes them generate new ideas ever so often. These gifts need to be mentored. That’s why we have so many speakers of note who will be there to impart their knowledge about what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur to the participants.”

She also sees the conference as a valuable opportunity to mentor young women in entrepreneurship. “The potential of women is greatly underutilised,” Shiundu says. “Women have great potential and the required character to be successful in business. What lacks is the knowledge that they need to fulfil their potential. Today you can see banks creating financial products specifically for women due to the success of chamas and other investment clubs; there is no need for young women to also be unequally affected by unemployment as is the case currently. I would encourage them to participate in this conference and take the lead in fighting against unemployment.”

One hundred of the entrepreneurs that attend the Youth+ Nairobi Conference will receive scholarships to participate in a 12-week fellowship program aimed at supporting the growth & continuity of the entrepreneurs through advanced training, analysis and application. This, says Freddy, is meant to change the trend of one time conferences that do not follow up on what is discussed. “We want to build a community for young entrepreneurs where they can learn from each other and share ideas even after the three days of the conference are over. This way we can be sure to monitor their progress and provide the advice, motivation and mentorship that they may require over the years to come,” he adds.

Throughout the 12 weeks, participants of the Youth+ Fellows Program will be attached to mentors and accountability partners who will keep them and their businesses moving in the right direction. The roles of the mentors will include guidance, constructive criticism and helping the entrepreneurs to expand their networks. The main objectives of the conference and mentorship program will be to improve the success rate of start-up companies, facilitate the creation of employment opportunities and initiate a shift in thought on what success is and what it takes to achieve it.

Wetheo Mwanzia, Head of Operations for Youth+ and a successful entrepreneur in the agricultural sector, expects a huge turnout for the conference in June. “Our mission is to eliminate the early death of the start-up company,” she says. “ I would encourage everyone who is currently involved in any entrepreneurial venture to attend the conference, not just to listen but also to speak to others and share ideas about what they think should be done to improve the situation for the youth who are facing the challenge of unemployment,” adds Mwanzia. “I have been operating a greenhouse in Kitui where we grow tomatoes that we would previously have brought in from Thika. Other than bringing down the cost of the produce in our area, the business also creates employment for several people. Entrepreneurship can benefit the whole community and that is what we want to mentor through Youth+ Conference.”

In the face of the unemployment crisis among the youth, Mulli insists that hope is not lost. “I hope that by participating in the conference, the young entrepreneurs of Nairobi will be able to realise that failure is part of the process, not the end. We hope to provide guidance and motivation to those working towards building new businesses, and to ensure that they have the discipline to handle the success once they achieve it.”

The Youth+ Nairobi Entrepreneurship Conference will be held from June 22nd-24th, 2016 at the Trinity Centre, All Saints Cathedral.