The Young African Leaders Initiative was launched by the Obama Administration as early as 2010 with a focus to empower entrepreneurs and small business leaders to come network and explore growth. The event is a great initiative to spur growth, prosperity, strengthen democratic governance, peace and security across African nations. This initiative is an effort to build the entrepreneurship ecosystem in African nations to address the younger population there. Statistics reveal that 63% of the population is below the age of 35 and initiatives like this are a major execise to bridge the digital divide between these countries and developing nations.

#yali2014 connects with rooted organizations like StartupAfrica ( https://twitter.com/StartupAfrika ) who work significantly with entrepreneurs and small businesses to drive the objectives.

Through #yali, the United States has invested significant resources to enhance leadership skills, spur entrepreneurship and connect young African leaders with one another and with Americans. Since 2010, the U.S. Department of State has held 15 exchanges specifically for young African leaders and sponsored 1,283 sub-Saharan scholars through its educational and cultural affairs programs. U.S. embassies have awarded small grants totaling $750,000 to YALI alumni groups supporting youth development in Africa. Other U.S. Department of State–led efforts, such as Lions@frica and Apps4Africa, have focused on building an entrepreneurial ecosystem to encourage broad-based economic growth and opportunity for young entrepreneurs — partnering with the private sector to run startup competitions, grow incubators and develop innovative new products to address local business and development needs.

The forthcoming event is happening this weekend at the coordinates given below. Come and attend to benefit from the opportunity ! Alternatively you can express your queries to us on twitter in @joesat or @startupafrika .