25 Feb 2018

Africa Youth Entrepreneurship Summit (AYES) seeks to empower local entrepreneurs through various discussions on topics that can help young people as they venture into the SADC region and the continent.

Speaking at the inaugural summit on February 22, Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Mr Thapelo Olopeng said entrepreneurship had no boundaries and it was through initiatives such as AYES that afforded young people an opportunity to penetrate not just the African continent, but also the international market.

He said government could only go as far as assisting youth businesses to access start-up capital, but it was up to young entrepreneurs to diversify their businesses into the region and not entirely depend on government for everything.

With Africa being rich with resources, Mr Olopeng said this presented an opportunity for such resources to be processed in Africa, then exported as finished products to the rest of the world as opposed to them being processed in first world countries.

Africa awaits young people with innovative ideas to utilise the abundant resources, he said, adding that young people should rise to occasion with innovative ways of utilising those resources for export to the rest of the world.

“The starting point is for our young people to start partnership with other young people across the African Continent. It is through these summits that noble ideas such as these should be discussed and implemented,” he said.

Minister Olopeng further urged young people to use the platform to come up with ideas to advice government to come up with youth policies that would help youth entrepreneurs to excel in business.

The AYES initiative aims at fostering regional ties among all aspiring and current entrepreneurs as well as connecting them in an effort to mentor and advise them on how to survive in the harsh realities of entrepreneurship.

Present at the summit were a panel of guests who came from a wide spectrum of the African continent, sharing ideas and finding ways of fostering partnerships.

They also discussed issues such as trade and investment opportunities in Africa, job creation, digital marketing, financial literacy and policies, among others.

Panelists also engaged in talks, giving out advice on challenges that the youth normally face when they venture into business and gave possible solutions to such challenges.

They further urged aspiring business owners to acquire as much skills as possible to further the success of their business. ENDS