AfDB and Seedstars World Partners to Enhance Youth Employability in Africa

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has partnered with Seedstars World, a Swiss-based startup competition in emerging markets to enhance youth employability in Africa. They will implement the innovative ‘job creation track’ model to address youth employment in the continent.

This deal aligns with AfDB’s entrepreneurship and innovation lab under its Jobs for Youth in Africa (JfYA) initiative. It aims to create 25 million jobs and equip 50 million young people with skills to enhance employability and entrepreneurial success by 2025. The focus of the initiative is to support young women and unemployed youths.

Seedstars is a Swiss-based private group of companies with a mission to impact lives in emerging markets through technology and entrepreneurship. It is the organizer of the annual Seedstars Africa Summit, accelerator programs, and the Seedstars World Competition.

Seedstars World and AfDB will select the winners of the competition and award the startups that demonstrate the most potential for sustainable job creation. The startups will access the Seedstars Investment Readiness Programme for three months.

AfDB supports startups in Africa through its innovation and entrepreneurship lab, as part of its long-term strategy to accelerate investments in startups. The bank will be the main partner for the remaining local Bootcamps, as well as a two-day private Bootcamp during the Seedstars Africa Summit to hold on the 2nd to 5th of December 2019. Emphasis will be on improving gender balance across all activities.

The Summit promises to bring together a network of startups, investors, mentors, partners, and over 300 key stakeholders from across the African continent. AfDB’s innovation and entrepreneurship lab will incubate African startups and make them investor-ready while contributing to the creation of sustainable and quality jobs for youths and women.