Most African countries are sitting on a ticking time bomb unless they address a pressing issue; empowering its youth to build a brighter future. Idle and unskilled youth are lethal especially when manipulated by unscrupulous politicians as has been witnessed in the past. So, when Rwanda held its first YouthConnekt summit back in 2012 it had that in mind; the youth need to be prepared. The world was changing at a mind-boggling speed, especially in technology and people needed to catch up. That meant empowering the youth. Today the YouthConnekt concept has been adopted by 11 other African countries and many more are on the way, and if today’s attendance of the YouthConnekt Africa summit is something to go by- where thousands are expected from across the continent – it is a testimony of its importance. At the meeting the youth will get a chance to interact with some of the brightest minds, be it in academia, entrepreneurship, politics, art and sports. Past editions have been very successful with many young innovators pitching their projects to investors and many have left Kigali with life-changing contracts in their pockets. The stressful scenes of victims of the Mediterranean Sea is a result of youth losing hope in their own countries, where they have been left to fend for themselves, their countries’ resources are not equitably shared and their future is not assured. The YouthConnekt model has proven to be infallible and has opened many doors that the youth had not realized existed. It has instilled in the youth a sense of self-belief that has seen many young entrepreneurs spring out of nowhere, simply because they were given a chance to spread their wings and learn to fly.
