By Binta Jaiteh
The Minister of Youth and Sports, Bakary Badjie,revealed on Monday that the 15 young entrepreneurs that would ultimately emerge as winners in the 2023 Youth Connekt Summit will share over D1M among themselves.
The minister said D1.75M will be up for grabs in this year’s Youth Connekt Summit, which brought together youths from across the country, to pitch business ideas they believe could impact lives.
Youth Connekt is a Pan-African multidimensional initiative whose goal is to engage young people in all spheres of nation-building and enhance their economic growth. The program aims to connect youth to their role models, peers, resources, technologies, skills, and economic opportunities.
The theme for this year’s summit is Moment for the Youth; Action for More Socio-Economic Development.
The Minister of Youths and Sports, Bakary Badjie, in his statement on the summit, said: “I am happy to announce this year’s prize of one million and seventy-five thousand Dalasi that will be shared among 15 young entrepreneurs that will emerge as winners.”
He explained that the Youth Connekt initiative came into being to empower the youths through enhancing their knowledge, stating that The Gambia was among the first six counties to launch the initiative and the chapter out of the thirty-three member countries.
The youth minister pointed out that the chapter has achieved a lot since it was launched in 2019 by President Adama Barrow, explaining that the government, through the Ministry of Youth and Sports,made a voluntary commitment to contribute to the achievement of the Youth Connekt Africa’s goals.
“Gambia’s goal focuses on jobs and entrepreneurship, education and skills, civil participation and leadership, and gender and technology,” Minister Badjie stated.
According to him, the Youth Connekt has established full operational creative labs at the NYC Secretariat within the Kanifing Municipality while another lab was established at Soma mini stadium in the Lower River Region, adding the lab has provided space and training to 20,000 youths.
The Executive Director of the National Youth Council(NYC), Alagie Jarju, stated that NYC and other stakeholders assure the public that the 2023 Youth Connekt will be a memorable one as compared to the previous years.
“It might interest you that, last year during the Youth Connekt Submit, we had an open call, and six hundred youths applied. We were able to shortlist one hundred and twenty-five participants but this year, over one thousand young Gambians applied and we shortlisted one hundred and twenty-five again. The outcome has shown the amount of interest youths have in the submission,” he stated.
The NYC ED described the 2023 Youth Submit as exceptional, saying they have five different ministers present to reveal the plans they have for the youths of the country in their various ministries.
The UN Resident Coordinator, Seraphine Wakana, explained that the Youth Connekt initiative has come a long way since its inception in Rwanda in 2012. “When The Gambia joined the transformative initiative movement in 2018, they became a pioneer among African countries and through that, we have seen a positive impact of youth engagement, especially in the areas of skills development, entrepreneurship, innovation, gender and equality leadership,” she acknowledged.