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Nestlé Boost Mentorship and Training for Young People in Sub-Saharan Africa
Companies Boost Mentorship and Training for Young People in Sub-Saharan Africa
ACCRA, Ghana, October 30, 2019- Nestlé and its regional partners have joined forces to launch the Regional Alliance for Youth in Sub-Saharan Africa to promote employability for young people.
The alliance, which will focus on creating and implementing employability programmes, mentorship and training initiatives designed to equip young people with essential workplace skills, is part of the company’s business-driven movement Alliance for YOUth, launched in Europe in 2014.
Today’s youth is the largest the world has ever seen – young people aged 15-24 account for one out of every six people globally, with 20% of the total youth population living in Africa alone.
This demographic trend is also exacerbated by the 71 million youth worldwide who are unemployed, while over 500 million are under-employed or stuck in uncertain or precarious jobs. Unemployment among youth in Sub-Saharan Africa reached nearly 30% in 2016. Without concerted action, it is expected that nearly 50% of youth in the region will be unemployed by 2025.
“We believe that investing in youth is vital for thriving, resilient communities, and helps to build our business too,” said Rémy Ejel, Market Head for Nestlé Central and West Africa. “Young people are the next generation of employees who will keep our company competitive, the farmers who will grow the crops we need, and the entrepreneurs who will help us reach new markets, regardless of their field or level of expertise. This is just the beginning,” he added.
The Regional Alliance for Youth in Sub-Saharan Africa
The alliance was launched in Côte d’Ivoire today, October 30th. It will also be launched in Angola and South Africa on October 31st and November 4th, respectively.
With the support of the Government of Côte d’Ivoire through ‘Agence Emploi Jeunes’, a government agency that promotes youth employability and employment, and the International Labour Organization, the regional members of the alliance in Côte d’Ivoire also include Bolloré, Groupe NSIA, MTN, Nielsen, Publicis and Nestlé.
“Nearly 77% of the Ivorian population is aged under 35, which means that concrete actions must be taken to provide more opportunities and help to integrate these young people into the workplace,” said Zain Reddiar, General Manager for Human Resources at MTN in Côte d’Ivoire. “At MTN, we are ready to effectively contribute to this project, which we are sure will help a large part of that population.”
Similarly in Angola, the alliance will be launched in partnership with the Government of Angola, the Swiss Embassy, ADPP, Nestlé and other private companies from different sectors operating in Angola.
“The future can only be built with the next generation, the next sustainable competitive edge, especially on diversifying economies will have to rely on the youth. Young people will be better prepared than ever before for the next challenges, supporting the digital changes of the society we are living in, which at the end of the day will benefit all the stakeholders of the sub-Saharan region. Shaping the young people within our working context, in an inclusive environment, creating new capabilities, allowing within our domain to further develop technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, Smart Data, as many others, shall support the youth to create the world of tomorrow that they will be in. We from our side will support the next generation on this journey, creating the basis for tomorrows challenges”, says Sérgio Filipe, Siemens Angola CEO.
Promoting employability
The alliance will combine the efforts of partner companies on hiring, skilling up and training young people by targeting tier three and four universities and vocational schools in and outside of capital cities.
These will be achieved through CV and interview skills-building workshops, identifying career opportunities and accessibility, and offering career-counselling sessions – reaching about 1,000 youths in Angola by 2020, and 5,000 youths in Côte d’Ivoire by the same period. In addition, about 10,000 youths will be reached every year thereafter in Côte d’Ivoire.
As part of the alliance, a flagship initiative will be identified and be jointly owned and implemented by members.
Join the business-driven movement
Nestlé founded Alliance for YOUth five years ago to help prepare young people to enter the professional world. In 2017, it was launched in Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, and in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay a year later. It was also recently launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2019 with 20 other international organisations.
By joining the Regional Alliance for Youth, companies – irrespective of size or turnover – can help to create a long-lasting impact for young people, while also enhancing their business, staying competitive and reaching more consumers.
Press Release
MoCaFi, founded by Nigerian Wole Coaxum, raises $23.5M funding to end racial wealth inequality
MoCaFi Founder and CEO, Wole Coaxum (Image: Wole Coaxum)
Mobility Capital Finance, Inc. (“MoCaFi”), a turnkey fintech platform leading financial empowerment for traditionally underserved communities, announces $23.5M in Series-B financing, led by Commerce Ventures. MoCaFi provides Financial Services as Infrastructure™ to various levels of government to improve the efficiency of providing financial and other resources to underserved communities across the country. The company’s mission is to help excluded communities create wealth through better access to public, private, and social capital.
Founded in 2016 by Wole Coaxum, a Black former Wall Street Executive who was inspired by the 2014 murder of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, to address stark social inequities by closing the racial wealth gap. MoCaFi advances a vision of socioeconomic justice by creating pathways to financial empowerment for millions of unbanked or underbanked Americans. With over $100 million of financial resources disbursed to underserved communities across 15 cities and counties across the country, MoCaFi is utilizing its capital to fulfill that vision and scale.
“Commerce Ventures has been unbelievably impressed by MoCaFi’s passion for helping underserved communities access high-quality, affordable financial services,” said Dan Rosen, Founding Partner and Head of Fintech Investments at Commerce Ventures. “MoCaFi’s scalable payments platform enables government agencies (Federal, State and Local) to disburse benefits directly to vulnerable populations in some of the country’s largest municipalities, including Los Angeles, CA, St. Louis, MO and Birmingham, AL. We’re excited to see the company deliver similar value to the next dozen municipality clients while also enabling the under-banked to get access to digital banking services and pathways to accessing credit and building wealth.”
“We are pleased to be joined by new investment partners with such valuable expertise. MoCaFi has established unique government partnerships that are capable of creating dramatic impact at scale, for millions of Americans currently unable to access quality financial services and benefits.”, said Tom Hutton, lead Series A Investor and investor in the Series B round, MoCaFi Board Member and accomplished Fintech venture capitalist.
Billions of dollars in public benefits are left unspent due to various complexities and inefficiencies in disbursement methods. MoCaFi’s platform provides governments with a solution that increases adoption and delivers benefits efficiently while reducing fraud.
“MoCaFi has been the perfect partner for the City of Birmingham. Over the last three years, we have delivered almost $20 million in emergency assistance to thousands of families – keeping them in their homes and keeping the lights on, and we couldn’t have done it without MoCaFi. More than just a payment processor- the MoCaFi team has been a fully engaged thought partner from conception through execution. We are incredibly appreciative of their support and hope to work with them again soon!” said Kelvin Datcher, Senior Advisor to the Mayor of Birmingham.
“We are excited to welcome the new investors to the MoCaFi mission, and appreciate the support of our existing investors, many of whom continue to show their trust by participating in the latest round . This Series B round allows MoCaFi to scale quickly and validates our unique business proposition. With this capital and more importantly, support from these terrific strategic investors, we can continue to innovate and bring our products and services to more municipalities, government entities and community partners – ultimately helping more people.” said Wole Coaxum, MoCaFi CEO & Founder.
The Republic of Angola has become the 21st African Member State and the 1st Lusophone Member State of pan-African insurer, Africa Trade Insurance Agency – ATI, after paying a capital subscription of USD25 million. The membership was funded the Angolan National Treasury resources and proceeds from the landmark BITA water project – a strategic public investment for the construction of infrastructure for the treatment, supply and storage of drinking water that will benefit 2.5 million people in Angola.
Welcoming Angola’s membership, ATI’s Chief Executive Officer, Manuel Moses, noted the country’s demonstration of its commitment to diversify its economy through ATI’s trade and investment risk mitigation solutions.
“We are happy to support Angola in its quest to economic diversification and becoming an agricultural powerhouse on the African continent. Angola’s membership is timely as ATI’s risk mitigation and credit enhancement services will act as a catalyst for strengthening and diversifying Angola’s economy, supporting both increased investment, exports and trade under Africa’s continental framework of the AfCFTA,” Mr. Manuel said.
Under this one of a kind blended finance and guarantee innovative structure, the Republic of Angola – along with the lenders covered by ATI under the transaction – agreed for the use of proceeds under the syndicated loan to also include the financing for the purpose of Angola becoming a member of ATI. ATI provided guarantee and insurance support for this World Bank’s partially guaranteed facility to the Government of Angola for the expansion and improvement of water supply service in the urban and peri-urban belts of Luanda.
Current exposure
ATI’s gross exposure in Angola, the largest country in Southern Africa Region, currently stands at USD467M mainly in construction, energy & gas, trade & transport, water supply and wholesale & retail sectors, with transactions valued at USD1.4B.
“This development was made possible because of ATI’s pan African mandate that allows the organization to cover transactions in Angola and beyond, despite ATI non-membership. Now that Angola is a fully-fledged shareholder of ATI, the country can fully access more of ATI’s guarantee solutions to attract more Foreign Direct Investments and boost its internal and external trade across the region,” Mr. Manual explained.
Angola’s economy is mainly driven by its oil sector but the country seeks to pursue new growth models for economic diversification through the agricultural sector and private sector development.
With ATI’s support, Angola is on the path to fiscal consolidation, manage their debt ceiling, increase in public and private investment, in order to resume the ascending curve of sustainable and inclusive economic growth as well as human development.
ATI has grown from a small African start-up in 2001 into a pan-African institution with presence across Africa and with a significant global reach. Besides Angola, other member countries include Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Institutional members include African Development Bank, African Reinsurance Corporation, Atradius Group, Chubb, CESCE (Spanish ECA), Ministry of Finance India (represented by ECGC), SACE SIMEST, The Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Trade and Development Bank (TDB), Kenya-Re, The PTA Reinsurance Company (Zep-Re), and the UK Export Finance.
Dawi Clinics, the largest chain of outpatient care in Egypt, has raised EGP 250 million to fund the growth of its chain of clinics across the Egyptian market by opening 30 new branches. The investment round is led by Al Ahly Capital Holding (ACH), the local investment arm of the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) with a co-investment by the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund (EAEF), a US Congressionally-supported investment fund, and already invested in Dawi.
Dawi Clinics, which is currently operating 20 branches across 10 governorates, offers coordinated family care provided by more than 260 doctors across multiple specialties. In 2022, Dawi offered its services to more than 120 thousand patients across the country. The Clinics’ unique operating model delivers better health outcomes by handpicking physicians and enabling them to work in a coordinated manner through a cloud-based medical electronic record platform that keeps all patient medical data on file.
“We are pleased to partner with the founders of Dawi, a company which has impressively grown over the past years with strong and dynamic management. We believe that this investment complements and fits well with the mission statement and growth strategy of our healthcare platform, providing high quality affordable healthcare services across the country. We look forward to continuing to expand in Dawi and our healthcare platform hand in hand.”, commented Karim Saada, Managing Director of ACH.
On his part, EAEF’s chairman James Harmin noted: “We are excited to support Dawi Clinics in its next stage of growth. Founded and led by two prominent women entrepreneurs, Dawi is revolutionizing Egypt’s healthcare market by offering consumers a comprehensive offering of health services through its primary care clinics. We look forward to supporting Dawi in the years ahead as it delivers on its mission to provide quality, affordable healthcare to consumers across Egypt”
“Securing new investments amid ongoing local and global economic challenges is a testimony to the value inherent in the Egyptian market, particularly in the healthcare sector and more specifically in the ability of Dawi Clinics to unlock this value and deliver superior returns”, said Magda Habib, Co-founder and CEO of Dawi Clinics.
She added: “Our proven and unique operating model across 20 successful branches is the reason that these investors have put their trust, and their money, in Dawi Clinics”.
“Our doctors are our key asset. We are proud of our high caliber, empathetic, young, and educated team of doctors. We have high trust in the superior caliber of Egyptian physicians graduated and trained in Egyptian medical institutions When supported by a solid institution that operates within a structured framework, they can deliver superior care and better outcomes for each of our patients” said Mairose Doss, co-founder and COO at Dawi Clinics.
ACH was represented in the investment round by MHR & Partners in association with White&Case. EAEF was represented by Nour & Partners in association with Al Tamimi & Company. Dawi was represented by Ibrachy Legal Consultancy (I&P)
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