'Work hard, play hard' often rolls off the tongue when describing the fun side after a productive day. For the Youth Connekt Summit, the party came before work started. What started as a calm, shiny morning at BK Arena suddenly turned into a big party as youth from across Africa who are in Kigali to attend a three-day Youth Connekt Summit hit the floor dancing to different genres of music. It all started a few minutes after the 9,000 youth took their seats inside BK Arena. After they all checked in, the DJ suddenly provoked them playing K’naan’s wave your flag song on heavy speakers sending waves of excitement across the entire Arena, and there, the party began. The energy got much felt when the DJ played top Nigerian hits. Youth were in a competition to see who raised their country’s flag higher. The most melodious moments were when the DJ played songs of Kizz Daniel and Tekno’s Buga and King James’ Ganyobwe as the BK Arena vibrated in excitement. The excitement had to be paused and the youth went back to start a working day. Osvaldo Rey from Congo Brazzaville said that his most exciting moment at the summit is meeting his fellow young people who are in the tech industry and plans on initiating joint projects while Tsiky Tsiky from Madagascar, said she comes from a country of happiness and Youth Connekt offers that moment of optimism for positivity and a bright future. The vigour at Youth Connekt was shared by President Kagame who took a moment to take some selfies with youth attending the summit Youth Connekt summit is a continental youth gathering with the goal of connecting youth with their peers, leaders, role models, skills, and resources to promote employability skills, access to finance, civic engagement, and enhance entrepreneurship opportunities. It is built on the belief that young people are trustees of the prosperity of our continent embedded in the agenda2063.
