By Elizabeth Osayande

To achieve her goal of impacting 100,000 youths in 2021 and 10 million youths across Africa by 2030, I-Train Africa – an Ed-tech social enterprise set to provide 21st-century relevant education to African youths by creating blueprint programs that offer clarity, direction, soft skills training, technical empowerment and advocacy is  launching the first and largest yearly Global Mentorship Youths Conference in Africa on Saturday, 16th of October 2021.

The Founder I-Train Africa, an UNLEASH Ambassador Sub-Saharan Africa, Aderinsola Adio-Adepoju explained that beyond quality education, lack of clarity and direction were factors hampering the youths in Africa from  unleashing their potentials.

“With half of Africa’s population under the age of twenty-five it is not out of place to conclude that Africa possesses the largest reservoir of youths. However, the huge potential that globally comes with youth domination has not been realized on the continent.

“This can be attributed to the fact that a vast majority of literate youths are unemployed with 77% of African youths having no formal income. More pressing is the fact that around 89 million are out of school in Africa and in Nigeria – the largest population in Africa, there are 25 million unemployed graduates.

“This means that the problems that plague the African youth goes beyond lack of education, but extends to a lack of clarity and direction. Therefore, the Global Mentorship Conference For African Youths is designed to give participants clarity, information, and exposure. Hence its theme “UNLEASHING THE POTENTIAL OF AFRICAN YOUTHS TO BECOME SUSTAINABILITY CHAMPIONS AND GLOBAL CITIZENS”.

“More importantly, it aims to enlighten them to the numerous opportunities that exist for African youths across the globe.

“The Global Mentorship Conference For African Youths is a mentorship initiative of I-Train Africa in partnership with UNLEASH Global Innovation Lab Denmark and it aims to empower 50,000 youths across 30+ African countries with mentorship and direction that will enable them to become global citizens.

“The conference will be hosted on the HOPIN Virtual Event Platform for Virtual, Hybrid and in person events featuring 30+ speakers from 6 continents and 100,000 participating youths.

“Various global opportunities still continue to evade the youths that direly need them. This Initiative was born out of the need to advocate, mentor, upskill and inspire literate youths by exposing them to all ingredients necessary for progress. Regardless of their intended endeavor – whether it be a career journey or entrepreneurship – acquiring the right tools, especially in developing nations, is what gives these youths a fighting chance. ” the  founder, I-Train Africa said.

Adding that global youths conference will fund the first 2000 entrants plus 3000 most engaged youths at the event with 3 months post-event training on how to secure grants, funding  and scholarships, as well as numerous opportunities  that often go under-utilized, Adio-Adepoju, highlighted the aim and objectives of the initiative.

 She said that:, “My passion for empowerment and community building has driven my zeal to create an African ecosystem that connects our youth with the rest of the globe, helps them compete favorably, and informs their intentions to attain untold heights.” She said.