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By Isabella Maua
According to World Bank report, youth account for 60% of the jobless African population. Additionally, a spectator index released in 2018 ranked Congo to have the highest unemployment rate at 46%,South Africa at 27%,Angola at 26%,Mozambique at 24% while Rwanda and Ethiopia had 17% each. As such the youth have taken it upon themselves to change their circumstances.
African youth fight high rates of unemployment by creating their own job opportunities… being entrepreneurs. They take risks, come up with innovative ideas and once they succeed, they create employment for their peers.
Entrepreneurship is an art that has many methods to it. No doubt it only takes highly skilled entrepreneurs to remain standing amidst the waving winds of discouragements and hard times especially in a developing continent.
Starting and even maintaining any kind of business in Africa is hard. Corruption, accomplished competition and stumbling government bureaucracy are some of the hard-hitting factors affecting startups among the youth.
Despite all these difficulties, the strong-willed youth have gone beyond all odds chasing their dreams of owning their own businesses.
Top 40 under 40 women is an initiative started by one popular media house in Kenya to recognize and appreciate successful female youth entrepreneurs in the country who have flourished in their respective fields. These include but are not limited to: professional service to enterprise, corporate leadership, sports and the arts.
Among hundreds of nominations received, the judges only select the most promising young ambitious women. In 2019, some outstanding women youth in this category were Jackline Cherop, co-founder and Managing Director Densey Tours and Travel Company- a leading African travel house based in Nairobi. Joyce Muthoni, on the other hand, is the founder of Viral Gorrila –a Digital Marketing and Creative Agency based in Kenya’s capital.
Forbes Magazine has also invested in looking for the best Africa has to offer especially in the dynamic business arena. Annually, it comes up with a list of 30 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs in Africa from hundreds of vetted nominees.
In 2018, Nthabiseng Mosia, 27, founder of Easy Solar from South Africa was among the mentioned young entrepreneurs. Easy Solar is a for-profit enterprise with a social mission to make clean energy affordable to off-grid communities in West Africa.
Other Promising Young Entrepreneurs In Africa selected by Forbes are: Oluwatobi Ajayi, 30-year-old Nigerian, a co-founder and CEO of Jetvan Automobiles Limited which is the largest authorized dealer of Mercedes-Benz Sprinter in Nigeria and 30-year-old Paul Kihiko, founder of Wing It Nairobi, a Kenya’s first and only wings-only Quick service restaurant.
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Fahad Awadh, is a 30-year-old Tanzanian and founder of YYTZ Agro-Processing, a cashew nut processing company that is adding value locally while creating jobs and boosting farmers’ income and the community at large.
Jean Bosco Nzeyimana, a Rwandan, is the Founder and CEO of Habona Limited, a company that provides integrated waste management services and further processes the waste into affordable and environmentally friendly fuels like biogas and biomass briquettes.
29-year-old Ugandan entrepreneur Ricky Rapa Thompson is the co-founder of SafeBoda. This is Uganda’s transport-based Application that is geared towards motorcycle taxis. The Application has also penetrated Kenya and is creating a number of jobs for the youth.
Mostafa Kandil, Mahmoud Nouhand Ahmed Sabbah, who are all Egyptians under 27 years of age, are the founders of Swvl; a premium mass transit system that provide buses to every neighbourhood in Cairo.
Simbarashe Mhuriro, is a 32-year-old Zimbabwean and founder of Oxygen Private Energy Limited. The company is an independent power producer that focuses on renewable energy development and specializes in utility-scale power plants as well as commercial rooftop projects.
AbdellahMallek, isa 28-year-old Algerian entrepreneur and founder of one of the first private startups accelerator in Algeria called Sylabs. It is a co-working, creation space and talent accelerator located in downtown Algiers that mixes startup art, technology and entrepreneurship to promote creativity and talent development.
In Kenya, the Youth Enterprise Development Fund was launched in 2007 and was strategically meant to address youth unemployment and provide credit while equipping the youth with appropriate skills to engage in economically feasible activities.
Contrary to its mandate, many youth have not been able to realize their dreams through YEDF due to inadequate support structures, unclear eligibility criteria and stringent lending conditions as well as corruption and politicization of the program.
This has made it harder for the Kenyan youth to start their own businesses. But for those with the zeal to become masters of their own destinies, nothing could deter them.
Jeremiah Ongeri is a soft spoken man in his early thirties and believes in dreams and action. In 2012, he thought of starting a consultancy firm with a sole purpose of expanding his knowledge in customer service delivery. A journey that began after quitting his job in another consultancy firm saw him come up with Primatech Managements Limited. Primatech is now a successful firm that boasts of providing quality training and auditing services to companies in Kenya.
“I left my job so that I could do a capacity building on myself. By the look of things, the only way I could achieve my goal was by being self employed since I lacked growth opportunity in my then job position,” explains Ongeri.
He also challenges youth to keep off the mentality that they must be employed to be successful in society. Besides, he urges them to keep dreaming and never be discouraged by day to day challenges especially during these tough economic times in Africa.
“As youths, we should take up any challenge as an opportunity to create solutions to our community and society at large. A dream backed up with determination will only need mentorship and proper training to realize it,” he reiterates.
As a young entrepreneur, Ongeri had to just believe in himself and push through his ambitions for about 5 years before his company was known.“ We have invested in digital marketing to sell our brand and our quality services have also earned us many client references. Presently, we have permanently employed 4 staff members while still working with other 20 associate companies,” Ongeri noted.
Jackson Muturi a 26-year-old spa owner at Nairobi’s Zimmerman estate is an entrepreneur whose slogan is if the going gets tougher, the tough gets going. From a humble background in Meru armed with a Degree in Graphic Design, Muturi followed his passion for beauty and later joined Vera Beauty College in Kenya’s Capital.
“I am a talented artist and I was sure that one day my dream of owning a business would come true. I studied beauty therapy where I incorporated my artistic skills especially in nail beauty. After graduating in 2015, I was employed for a year and that is when I started saving to start my own beauty parlour,” explains Muturi.
Having seen the high demand of beauty services in his area of residence, the determined entrepreneur took up the opportunity to start a spa. “I learnt that whenever anyone needed beauty services, they had to travel to Nairobi CBD. The only way I could save them time and money was to start my own spa near them and provide the best quality services that could make them come back for more,” he said.
Despite major challenges like rise of product prices and stiff competition, Muturi, who presently has 7 young employees advices aspiring entrepreneurs to focus on quality service providence and building customer trust so as to realize profits and growth.
On the hand, while the rest of the globe’s population seems to be slowing, Africa’s is doubling. The UN estimates that the population will be 2.4 billion by 2050 up from 1.2 billion at present.
In 2016, International Labour Organization (ILO) reported that 70% of African workers were “working poor” noting that this was the highest rate globally.
With the increasing rate of self employment and youth starting their own businesses, there’s surely hope for a better tomorrow for Africa.