Africa-Press – Botswana. The forthcoming Kusi Ideas Festival has been described as a platform for youth development and mentorship.
One of the key highlights of this edition of the festival that specifically touch on the youth, will be discussions around the theme; When African Youth Get Behind the Wheel.
Ms Kinya Gitonga, acting head of external affairs at Nation Media Group PLC states that now more than ever before, there is growing concern on how to equip the youth for an increasingly evolving knowledge-based economy.
For decades, says Ms Gitonga says, development reports have called out on African countries, highlighting their unsustainable demographic growth, which tends to be viewed as a strain on almost all developmental initiatives.
“We are looking to explore the opportunity, the dividend in this demographic boom,” she says.
“We will be seeking to assess what a future Africa looks like in the eyes of young people.
We have picked very vibrant young individuals from Botswana and across the continent to take the lead in conversations around this theme.
They will have a chance to chart the way forward for the youth in Africa.”
In addition to sitting in the panels, Ms Gitonga says the youth will be afforded an opportunity to participate in the conference, ask questions and meet influential thought leaders from across the continent.
“We are inviting a group of diverse universities to come to the festival, and we are hoping a few young people from Botswana will, at a minimum, be inspired to travel out of Southern Africa after this festival to explore what lies in the rest of the continent,” states Ms Gitonga.
By ensuring that the youth have representatives across all the platforms, the festival organisers want to ensure that young people can speak about issues from their perspective.
At the same time, knowledge sharing and networking during the festival are emphasised.
In every conference, explains Ms Gitonga, there is inclusion of youth-driven conversations that promote innovation, entrepreneurship and opportunities for growth, citing a young innovator who benefitted from opportunities that contributed immensely to the growth of his enterprise.
Ms Gitonga notes that previous festivals brought on board some of the most free-spirited and bold people calling out Africa’s challenges, and those turning them into opportunities.
For many years to come, these will be the people shaping the continent, allowing connections to this valuable cast of players, and giving institutions and businesses a great opportunity to hitch the wagons to the coming African Century.
She boasts about the festival having been able to connect Africans to opportunities in various areas including business and small business development, with the biggest achievements in the policy area.
“We mine what we call ‘moonshots’, novel ideas for working through various African social, economic, and environmental challenges.
These have been well received and gone around quite a bit,” she adds.
As a media house, Ms Gitonga says NMG utilises its convening power to create awareness of the opportunities for the youth to find their place in the political, creative, research, and innovation industries, among, others.
The highlights are opportunities that offer creation of pods of knowledge that strengthen youth’s chances of connecting with potential business partners, exchange programmes, platforms and others to further individual agendas.
Today, more than 60 per cent of Africa’s population is under the age of 25 and by 2030, young Africans are expected to constitute 42 per cent of global youth.
Therefore, Ms Gitonga believes that NMG’s ultimate goal is to prepare the youth to take up the leadership mantle because they are indeed the future of Africa.
The NMG in partnership with Botswana will host the 5th Kusi Ideas Festival between December 6-9 in Gaborone under the theme; Africa’s Agenda 2063: Making the Dream Come True.
The Kusi Ideas Festival is a ‘Pan-African ideas transaction market’ that seeds innovative thinking that will empower Africa to be the leading voice in global affairs in the 21st .
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