CAP Youth Empowerment Institute (CAP YEI) in partnership with Youth Business International (YBI) and a dedicated group of Africa-based enterprise support organisations, has officially launched The YBI Africa Collaborative, a ten-year initiative with the vision to make Africa the best continent for youth entrepreneurship.
The YBI Africa Collaborative will focus on three key areas which include fostering enabling entrepreneurship ecosystems through cross-sector collaboration, enhancing access to finance for young entrepreneurs as well as strengthening business development services tailored to local contexts.
According to a statement, CAP YEI Executive Director, Ndung’u Kahihu noted that by combining pan-African expertise with locally rooted solutions, the YBI Africa Collaborative aims to dismantle systemic barriers, unlock innovation, and create sustainable livelihoods for Africa’s youth.
“By working together across borders, we can transform barriers into opportunities for millions of young Africans and build a sustainable economy with the next generation of entrepreneurs.” Kahihu noted.
He remarked that, the YBI Africa Collaborative’s 10-year vision is ambitious yet achievable: ‘To make Africa the best continent for youth entrepreneurship.’
The Collaborative emphasizes strengthening local institutions and partnerships, engaging diverse young entrepreneurs, and ensuring that markets function effectively within communities.
It is founded on a new model of pan-African support 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 enterprise support organisations (ESOs) to move beyond day-to-day support for individual entrepreneurs.
Comprising CAP YEI (Kenya), Enterprise Uganda, FATE Foundation (Nigeria), Fetola (South Africa), ideiaLab (Mozambique), Somo (Kenya), and YBI, the Collaborative builds on the YBI network’s proven track record over 25 years of combining local knowledge with global influence to achieve impact at scale for youth-led businesses.
In 2024 alone, the YBI network collectively supported over 47,000 young entrepreneurs and facilitated the creation of nearly 200,000 jobs across Africa.
The YBI Africa Collaborative is now calling on funders and partners to join its mission to create a thriving environment where young African entrepreneurs can succeed, scale, and drive inclusive economic growth across the continent.
