Some beneficiaries of Mastercard Foundation sharing their experiences
Mastercard Foundation says it is committed to ensuring that over 3 million youth especially women have access to dignified jobs by 2030.
The management of Mastercard Foundation said the initiative was part of the, “the Young Africa Works strategy” project implemented by the Foundation to support the youth in the sub-region with its regional office in Ghana.
The Foundation also stated that the “Young Africa Works” in Ghana is aligned with an agenda for jobs that seeks to create prosperity and equal opportunity for all in line with the Ministry of Agriculture’s flagship programmes including Planting for Food and Jobs.
The management in a statement mentioned that the foundation which started operating in Ghana since 2009, has also worked over the years with visionary organisations to enable young people in Africa and indigenous African communities to access dignified and fulfilling work.
The Mastercard Foundation is one of the world’s largest foundation’s, with a mission to advance education and financial inclusion.
According to the Foundation, the strategy was to help ensure that Africa, which is estimated to become a home to the largest workforce, with about 375 million entering the job market, would be provided with the right skills to enable them to contribute to the continent’s competitiveness and improve their livelihoods.
The Foundation indicated that to enable it achieve its ambition of helping the youth to achieve this objective, a diagnostics was commissioned, involving stakeholders from academia, government and the private sector.
“Everyone should have an equal chance to succeed regardless of their starting point in life. With access to education financial services and skills training, young people can have that chance,” the statement said.
“Our focus is supporting economically disadvantaged young people in Africa to find opportunities to improve themselves, their families, and their communities out of poverty to a better life,” it added.
The Foundation said it has also identified the agricultural sector as a high potential to create work opportunities for 30 million young people to enable them contribute to the contents global competitiveness as well as improve their lives.
The management of the Foundation said its agriculture portfolio therefore consists of about 80 to 90 percent of its partnerships in Ghana while innovation and emerging sectors will contribute up to 10% to 20% of its partnerships.
“To harness the opportunity in the sector to create work opportunities for young people, we seek to deepen efforts in the agriculture industry, using a value chain and market systems development approach to address systematic barriers, enhance productivity and provide access to financial services for operators within the value chain,” the Foundation stated.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah