Held between 19 to 21 in 2017 July, in Rwanda, the Youth Connekt forum focused on 3 objectives: policies, programs and partnerships to empower young Africans.
Sponsored by President of the Republic of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, the inaugural Youth Connekt Africa brought together government officials and special guests, most notably Jack Ma, Founder and Executive Chairman of the Alibaba Group, Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi, UNCTAD Secretary-General and Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, UNDP Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Office for Africa.
The organization has 2.500 invited guests including senior executives from multinational companies operating in Africa, leaders of civil society organizations, African development partners, academy members, business owners, artists and opinion leaders from across the globe.
Angola was represented by Dizando Norton, member of the Kianda Hub.
The last day of the forum was marked by the meeting between the young people and Jack Ma, the entrepreneurial billionaire responsible for the Alibaba group. Jack Ma plans to invest in African startups that want to expand internationally. The investment will be:
1. E-commerce
2. IT Training
3. Environmental protection in Africa
4. 10 Million Dollar Fund for Young African Entrepreneurs
Project number one - Jack Ma invited 200 young African entrepreneurs to work at Alibaba's headquarters in order to gain experience in fields, including; Electronic commerce, artificial intelligence and internet.
"They will return to Africa to develop their businesses and help others to expand their businesses," said Jack.
The Second Project - the Chinese billionaire said that Alibaba will work with universities in Africa and governments to provide training on specific courses, including; Internet, artificial intelligence and electronic commerce.
Jack Ma announced a third project involving a partnership between Alibaba and China's Paradise Foundation - this project will seek to promote and support environmental conservation efforts in Africa, especially the protection of elephants and other precious animals.
"We will award 50 rangers over the next ten years to thank them for their tireless conservation efforts," said Jack Ma.
In the fourth and last project, Jack Ma said he wants to show his confidence in Africa and therefore promised to invest in youth. Jack Ma promised to invest 10 million dollars in a fund to support entrepreneurs and added: “I believe more people will come in to support the fund and make it bigger".
Alibaba Group Holding Limited, founded in 1999, is a Chinese e-commerce company that provides customer sales services to consumers, business to consumers and business to business through web portals.
The market value of Alibaba is more than US $ 231 billion.
