Young African and European People Leading Change and Turning COVID-19 into Opportunity

By: Alina Weckström and Maija Luukka

Ambitious Africa has created super-connectivity between bright young people from Africa and Europe so they can solve local problems in African countries and drive change together focusing on the Three Es: Education, Entrepreneurship, and Entertainment. The initiative is working to heighten the visibility of African startups in Europe through cross-continental online networking events.

Ambitious Africa is a new initiative founded by young Finnish people, including ESTIEMers (!) which brings together driven youth across the cultures and borders of Africa and Europe who are hungry for change. When COVID-19 hit, the initiative turned a challenge into an opportunity. Its founders realised they could easily bring people together from these two parts of the world, as online meetings quickly became the norm. They kickstarted the initiative in April 2020 through a series of online matchmaking events. Ambitious Africa is already established in 25 African countries. Ten more are in the works. The ambitious goal is to have established national teams in all fifty-four African countries. Going forward, Ambitious Africa continues to work on different projects, including collaborative events.

Solution-focused matchmaking events with Ambitious Africa’s national teams

Through the events, African entrepreneurs can leverage their knowledge, expand their networks and showcase startups to potential investors. The African countries involved each form a national youth-driven team. Each team’s function is to be a “super connector” between the continents bringing people together to make the change. For example, they organize their own events or a ‘national day’, where the country representatives and participants, which include entrepreneurs, government officials, educators, and investors, zoom in on country-specific challenges. During the event, solutions to the challenges are brainstormed. European companies that already have solutions to problems discussed during the event are then connected to a country in Africa and vice versa. If there is no existing solution, novel impact projects are started that feed off the collaboration between the African and European youth. The first national day event for Kenya in April reached 500 participants. Any of these Ambitious Africa events are a great way to learn more about what is offered, meet interesting people, and get a feel for Ambitious Africa’s dynamic network.

A mutually beneficial exchange between Africa and Europe

Supporting Africa by sharing European solutions is a sustainable way of empowering young African entrepreneurs to realise their ideas, according to the initiative. It allows mutually beneficial exchanges between the countries where cultural differences can be used as an advantage for creating new solutions. The ethos of Ambitious Africa is based on the understanding that African countries are capable of solving their own problems and providing value to Europe.

The initiative focuses on problem-solving using the latest insights in the areas of education, entrepreneurship, and entertainment, which Ambitious Africa sees as some of the Nordics’ core strengths. The goal is to create conditions and opportunities for young people in Africa which will propel the societies forward in a progressive, peaceful, and playful way, without taking away from their cultures and traditions.

Current projects

The Ambitious Africa network stretches within a range of different industries, such as agriculture. In Rwanda, Ambitious Africa stands behind innovative agri-startups such as HydroFeeds . In Rwanda, the animal feed which farmers use to raise cattle is expensive because it is usually imported. HydroFeeds has developed a system that allows farmers to effectively grow their own wheat-based feed in their own backyards regardless of the season. The system uses minimal resources and reduces farmers’ costs by up to 51%, leaving them with more money to sustain their businesses and feed communities.

Another industry Ambitious Africa has a strong foothold is the gaming industry. Douglas Ogeto, a representative from Team Kenya, is the founder of a video game publishing company called LudiqueWorks. They have partnered with institutions for higher learning to engage youth using impact games to make learning more fun and motivating. Beyond that, the initiative has a growing number of incubators, accelerators, and forward-thinking education projects all over Africa.

Ambitious Africa is not limited to one particular industry. The focus is always on making an impact. In addition to other projects, the initiative will help its associated African startups streamline their products to Finnish and European business networks using the Startup Includer platform, giving investors direct links to the startups.

If you´re curious to learn more about Ambitious Africa and even join us, go to visit our website and connect with us: https://www.ambitious.africa/

You can also follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ambitious.africa/

Credit: 59th issue of the ESTIEM Magazine (2020)

You can now read the whole 59th issue of the ESTIEM Magazine on the ISSUU platform!