How Is YES! Helping?
Awarded £400,000+ so far in travel grants for African youth, to our Youth Energy Summit & Youth Energy Days
Exposed thousands of job opportunities on the continent from our partners & beyond, to our network of African graduates.
Facilitated 10,000+ connections between employers, young entrepreneurs & graduates through our events and on our YES! Connect platform.
Empowered our YES! grant beneficiaries to build their businesses and give back to their local communities.
Don't Take it From Us - Hear From Our YES! Grant Beneficiaries:
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Granny LesiamangFounder of Clauseph BioFuels Botswana |
I made a lot of connections and built a robust network from attending the YES! in Kenya. I was very motivated to work harder, to be more visible and be more driven just from seeing a lot of young people who were platformed as speakers and the incredible achievements they already had. Since April 2023, we have reached 450 more customers, and been in 7 more communities, which is 4X more customers than we had prior to YES! I was and am still motivated to do more, have a wider reach and impact, and perform equal to or greater than the young people I encountered at the YES! 2023.
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Rebecca LekwaGlobal Cleantech Innovation Program Nigeria |
Aspiring to shape energy policy and drive sustainable change, I currently work for the Global Cleantech Innovation Programme, funded by GEF and implemented by UNIDO. I am driven by a profound vision: to illuminate Africa without compromising our environment. My goals include contributing to energy policy-making, ensuring clean, affordable, and reliable electricity for every African home. YES! has been a transformative catalyst in my journey. Surrounded by like-minded young individuals, I found the community I craved. This platform granted me invaluable insights into the energy sectors of diverse African countries.
The Challenge
The challenge is not a competition, the challenge is not who will succeed first – the challenge is to electrify a continent & create the conditions for economic empowerment.
Africa is the youngest and fastest-growing continent in the world. According to the IMF, population growth on the continent means that, by 2035, there will be more young Africans entering the workforce each year than in the rest of the world combined. Properly harnessed, this young growing working-age population can drive Africa’s economic transformation.
However, this opportunity could also pass Africa by. Currently the majority of youth do not have secure work or economic futures. Of the 420 million youth aged between 15 and 35 in Africa today, the majority are unemployed, have insecure jobs or are in casual employment. The consequence of this translates into a failure to capitalise on one of the continent’s greatest assets for growth - its large growing population of talented young people.
On a continent where over 50% of Africans do not have access to electricity, not only is there a huge opportunity to develop energy projects for employment, but also to harness that energy for economic development.
Our Foundational Partner:
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