Boosting the creative industry to increase youth employment and involvement

Ideas capable of reshaping our narratives and lives often spring up from the most unexpected of places. The first move towards the reshaping of these narratives is boosting the creative industry which uses music, fashion, art, dance to convey stories through creative and imaginative ways that easily appeal to the youth who make up 60% of the African population.

The globalisation of culture is perhaps nowhere more visible than in the changing nature of the relationship between the youth in Africa and their sense of identity. Harnessing their creativity as one of the major ways of making our content prosperous and competitive is the only sure-fire way to promote the youth. Through platforms like East Africa Got Talent, the youth in Africa have gotten a chance to showcase their skills and nurture their talents employing huge numbers of people and accounting for direct change in youth’s lives.

Talent detection programs can stimulate the transition of Passion into profit.
Trying to build a career in the creative industry for the youth can be tough with lots of ups and downs. After years of stifled growth, generally being ignored by everyone who should have cared, from the mainstream media to government, new crop of creatives have embraced a do-it-yourself approach to create a vibrant parallel creative industry.

With the government’s support, this African youth in the creative industry can resolve the challenges of unemployment and poverty to be self-reliant and job creators. Sports also possess the key to Africa’s growth due to its human and material endowment hence the need for African leaders to maximize the continent’s potential for advancement. The establishment of Create Industry Financing Initiatives to develop the creative industry would evolve ideas that would reposition the continent for economic development and decrease unemployment.

The third edition of the Youth Connect Africa (YCA) Summit 2019 is set to be held from 9 – 11 October in Kigali, Rwanda. Under the theme of “Boosting an Industrious Young Africa” the summit invites all African youth visionaries in the creative industry to attend #YCA2019 to meet and exchange with fellow dreamers and leaders.