The Tony Elumelu Foundation in partnership with UNICEF Generation Unlimited (GenU), IKEA Foundation and Young Green Entrepreneurs, has launched the Green Entrepreneurship Programme to address African youth unemployment.
The application portal for BeGreen Africa is now open on TEFConnect, the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s digital platform, to all waste management start-ups in Kenya, and green start-ups in Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.
The key objective of this mission-aligned partnership is to create a holistic, sustainable, and youth-led green entrepreneurship initiative in the waste sector [in Kenya], and the green sector [in Nigeria, Morocco, Senegal and South Africa], to advance marginalized youth’s social and economic prosperity while addressing the triple planetary crisis by reducing inequalities and creating sustainable livelihoods for themselves and their peers.
The founding partners of BeGreen Africa will leverage their collective expertise, close relations with government, the private sector and youth networks, and extensive field presence across Africa and in Kenya to a) develop green-focused curricula that address the gaps and capacity needs of the identified target youth, b) engage expert trainers to deliver the training via www.TEFConnect.com, c) facilitate mentor and alumni network connections, and d) provide seed capital funding that will empower the identified entrepreneurs to kickstart, develop, and scale their green businesses.
In this pilot, #BeGreenAfrica aims to train 1,000 Kenyan youth in the waste management sector, and economically empower 120 of them, as well as empower 25 green sector entrepreneurs in Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa, all under the age of 35, with new or existing green businesses.
The initiative will build evidence around youth entrepreneurship in high-impact green sectors, exploring how young entrepreneurs can contribute to circular economies and a sustained green revolution in Africa.
The multilingual Application Portal is open on www.TEFConnect.com from August 10 till August 31, 2023.
