Overview
More than three-quarters of the youth population across Africa aspire to start their own businesses within five years. The entrepreneurial spirit of this generation represents an opportunity for inclusive economic growth, job creation, and sustainable development across the continent, but multiple barriers stand in the way.
Despite this ambition, young African entrepreneurs face formidable challenges. These range from limited access to appropriate finance and connected markets to the lack of coordinated and quality business development services, technical support, and enabling government policies. There is a clear and urgent need for contextually rooted local solutions that address these systemic barriers. A new model of entrepreneur-led sustainable development is required – one that genuinely considers the lived experiences of young people across the diverse African landscapes.
In response to this critical need, Youth Business International (YBI) and a dedicated group of its member Entrepreneurship Support Organisations (ESOs) from across Africa have formed The YBI Africa Collaborative. The Collaborative leverages YBI’s proven track record of impact, with its members in the region collectively supporting over 47,000 entrepreneurs and having facilitated the creation of almost 200,000 jobs last year alone.
Mission and vision
The YBI Africa Collaborative’s 10-year vision is ambitious yet achievable: To make Africa the best continent for youth entrepreneurship.
This means the strengthening of local institutions and partnerships, the engagement of a diverse array of young entrepreneurs and a focus on making markets work effectively within local communities. This initiative is founded on the principle of advocating for and implementing a new model of pan-Africa support that is driven by local expertise and tailored to the continent’s unique contexts.
Based on this vision, The YBI Africa Collaborative’s mission is: To leverage pan-African experience and collaborate to ensure effective youth entrepreneurship support. The YBI Africa Collaborative will serve as a dynamic platform for ambitious and aligned African ESOs to move beyond day-to-day support for individual entrepreneurs.
Members
The YBI Africa Collaborative consists of the following organisations:
- CAP YEI, Kenya
- Enterprise Uganda
- FATE Foundation, Nigeria
- Fetola, South Africa
- ideiaLab, Mozambique
- Somo, Kenya
- Youth Business International
The YBI Africa Collaborative Offer
“The Africa Collaborative will be a game-changer for youth entrepreneurship across the continent, creating a platform for systemic change driven by local expertise.”
Adenike Adeyemi, Executive Director at the FATE Foundation and YBI Board Trustee
The YBI Africa Collaborative will focus on impactful interventions that are scalable and systemic, provide demonstrable learnings, and achieve meaningful benefits for disadvantaged young entrepreneurs across the continent. We have several partnership options around supporting the YBI Africa Collaborative to power Pan-African youth entrepreneurship:
- Enhancing Access to Finance: Young entrepreneurs lack access to the necessary capital, financial services, and assets needed to start, sustain, or grow their businesses. Traditional financing often overlooks their potential and is beyond many young entrepreneurs’ reach. Our approach includes developing and disseminating improved investor readiness programmes, facilitating the development and adoption of financial and digital products tailored to youth needs, and establishing new or supporting existing Pan-African youth-inclusive investment or challenge funds to finance emerging businesses.
- Strengthening Business Development Services (BDS): African young entrepreneurs need context-specific and specialised services, linkages to their peers, and tailored mentorship to support business success. Our approach includes providing targeted digital and in-person training, the development of local, national, and pan-African networks of entrepreneurs (via bootcamps/platforms), and the establishment of a certification program for trainers (e.g., African Excellence in Youth Entrepreneurship) to ensure quality and consistency.
- Fostering Enabling Entrepreneurship Ecosystems: Limited understanding of the youth entrepreneurship landscape, coupled with a lack of coordination between private and public sector actors, hampers the creation of a truly supportive environment. Our approach focuses on facilitating collaboration between ESOs, policymakers, academics, and the private sector. Via Youth Entrepreneurship Ecosystem mapping and research, we want to activate evidence-informed change using detailed analysis, reports, and policy briefs.
Work with us
We invite you to partner with the YBI Africa Collaborative. Your support will enable us to work systematically and strategically to improve the quality, comprehensiveness, and availability of business development services, financial access, and ecosystem support for young African entrepreneurs. Together, we can unlock the immense potential of Africa’s youth, fostering innovation, creating sustainable livelihoods, and driving inclusive economic growth across the continent. Let’s champion a future where every young African entrepreneur has the opportunity to thrive.
To discuss opportunities, please contact our Head of Development and Programmes, Neelam Dave: [email protected].
