The MasterCard Foundation’s ‘Young Africa Works’ initiative aims to enhance job creation for youth in Ethiopia in promising, untapped sectors.
The primary aim of the initiative is to give 10 million youth access to ‘dignified and meaningful’ work by 2030 in agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, and digital technology.
For this mission, it has committed USD 300 million for five years.
The implementation of the initiative is divided into 5 priority areas. The first priority areas focuses on the agricultural sector. It aims to strengthen agri-food systems, create stronger links with agro-industrial parks, and increase access to financing for agribusinesses.
The second priority area is focused on building a seamless transition for skilled youth to go from working in industrial parks to creating their own ventures and enterprises.
After building this baseline of fundamental operations such as financing and providing platforms for youth to create their own businesses, the next priority is strengthening the tourism sector. Robust tourism is recognised as a crucial factor in supporting the expansion and modernisation of the work done in the first two priority areas.
The final priority area focuses on national digitisation as the ribbon that ties all the work done across the country to create a seamless, integrated business network. This area is dedicated to creating digital financial tools and resources including cross-sector payment platforms through collaborative efforts between private players and the Ministry of Innovation and Technology.