Telecom
Upskilling Young People to be Entrepreneurial in the age of Technology is Critical
Africa’s young people are undoubtedly one of the continent’s greatest resources. As other regions battle with ageing populations and declining birth rates, Sub-Saharan Africa can lay claim to a median age of 19.7 with around 70% of the population under the age of 30. Those young people are increasingly well-educated and connected.
Didi Onwu, Managing Editor at The Anzisha Prize
But all that potential means nothing if they aren’t getting the opportunities needed to fulfil it. And in many countries, it’s clear that they aren’t. In South Africa, the continent’s most advanced economy, the unemployment rate sits at 63.9% for those aged 15-24 and 42.1% for those aged 25-34 years. In Nigeria, meanwhile, the rate among people aged 15-34 is around 42.5%. And in Kenya, lobby group The Youth Congress claims that seven out of every 10 unemployed people are aged 35 and under.
While there are a number of interventions that could, and should, be made to help reverse those figures, perhaps the most important is to ensure that young people have the skills they need to be entrepreneurial. Indeed, research has shown that innovators can create significant wealth and have considerable developmental influences on society.
It’s even more critical at a time when technology is accelerating so fast that jobs can quickly become redundant.
“Fostering entrepreneurship among young people not only enables them to create their own opportunities and employment for other young people,” says Didi Onwu, Managing Editor at The Anzisha Prize, an organisation born out of a partnership between African Leadership Academy and Mastercard Foundation that seeks to increase the number of job generative entrepreneurs fundamentally and significantly in Africa. “It can also help them recognise and pursue employment opportunities that they might not have been able to otherwise.”
Yes, entrepreneurship really is a skill
Before digging into exactly what kind of skills can help foster entrepreneurship among a whole continent’s worth of young people, it’s worth pointing out that there’s a pervasive myth that needs to be busted. Over the years, glowing profiles of entrepreneurs (particularly in the tech space) have convinced many that entrepreneurs are born rather than made.
But, as Onwu points out, that’s simply not true.
“The idea of the brilliant innovator turned billionaire makes for a good story,” she says. “But dig a bit further and you’ll see that most successful entrepreneurs were given the tools they needed to succeed from a very young age.”
Microsoft founder Bill Gates, for example, was given extensive time with his high school’s computer at a time when having one was still a rarity. His mother also sat on the board of a non-profit with then IBM chairman John Opel, and helped the then fledgling company score a contract with the computing giant which ultimately proved crucial to its future success.
“While we can’t give every prospective young African entrepreneur a family connection, we can help them develop critical entrepreneurial skills that will serve them well in the future,” says Onwu.
The right skills matter most
While there are obviously a number of hard skills, such as those that concern technological proficiency, which are important to being an entrepreneur, the really valuable ones are a little more intangible. And equipping young people with those skills requires more than a straightforward curriculum.
Take network building, for example. While you could teach the basics in a course, establishing real networks takes time and consistent effort. The same is true for pitching to investors for funding. Other skills, such as mastering the fear of failure, can only be learned through practice.
“It’s something that we thought hard about when we redesigned the fellowship programme from the ground up a few years ago,” says Onwu. “We wanted to ensure that our fellows were holistically building a broad range of entrepreneurial skills throughout their fellowships and beyond.”
Fellows are, for example, given access to communities of fellow entrepreneurs, introduced to a wide network of stakeholders and business experts, and provided with the opportunity to shadow successful entrepreneurs in their sector. It’s an approach which makes a great deal of sense when you consider that research has shown that exposure to innovation has a significant positive impact not just on the kind of innovation that young people produce, but also on their overall ability to be innovators.
Upskilling, now and forever
It should be absolutely clear that Africa needs its young people to be equipped with entrepreneurial skills if they are to meet their full potential in an age of accelerated technology. And, as Onwu points out, efforts to ensure that this is the case need to be made at every level of society.
“While we’re incredibly proud of the work we do at the Anzisha Prize, along with our partners, no single organisation can provide all of Africa’s young people with the skills they need to thrive as entrepreneurs,” she says. “It needs buy-in from governments, NGOs, the private sector, and a variety of other stakeholders.”
Moreover, these efforts cannot simply be short-term and instead need to be sustained over a prolonged period.
“The factors that make upskilling Africa’s young people to be entrepreneurial so important now aren’t going away anytime soon,” she concludes. “It’s therefore critical that all efforts are made to ensure that any initiatives aimed at building entrepreneurship are sustainable and capable of adapting to a constantly shifting business and technology environment.”
Katsina State Government has entered into a strategic partnership with UK-based green technology company, Conflow Power Group Limited (CPG), for the deployment of 50,000 solar-powered smart streetlights embedded with artificial intelligence (AI) computing capabilities across the state.
The project, described as one of the first of its kind in Africa, is expected to position Katsina as a pioneer in distributed AI infrastructure by integrating street lighting, edge computing, surveillance, and public connectivity into a single platform.
The technology, known as iLamp, is designed as a solar-powered smart streetlight equipped with embedded low-power computing chips capable of handling AI-related tasks. According to Conflow Power Group, when deployed as a network, the connected lampposts can collectively function as a distributed AI data centre, enabling processing power to be spread across thousands of units rather than concentrated in a traditional facility.
Chairman of Conflow Power Group, Mr. Edward Fitzpatrick, said the innovation was developed as a cleaner and more sustainable alternative to conventional data centres, which typically consume significant electricity and water resources.
He explained that each iLamp contains batteries charged through cylindrical solar panels, supplying renewable energy to onboard computing systems powered by energy-efficient AI chips.
“NVIDIA has created chips compact and efficient enough to be powered by as little as 15 watts, making it possible to integrate computing directly into streetlights,” Fitzpatrick was quoted as saying.
He noted that beyond lighting, the smart lampposts can also host AI-enabled cameras and sensors for public safety, traffic monitoring, and urban management applications.
Under the Katsina deployment, the iLamps are expected to feature cameras capable of detecting traffic violations such as speeding, illegal parking, and seatbelt non-compliance. The system may also support public Wi-Fi, Bluetooth connectivity, and digital monitoring services, subject to Nigeria’s regulatory and data protection requirements.
Special Adviser on Power and Energy to Katsina State Governor, Dr. Hafiz Ibrahim Ahmad, described the agreement as a landmark step in the state’s digital transformation agenda.
He said the deployment would not only improve public lighting and safety but also open up new revenue streams for the state through AI computing services and technology-enabled traffic enforcement.
“Today, Katsina becomes home to the only distributed AI data centre of its kind on the African continent. This means safer streets, real-time crime and terrorism prevention, free public internet, and new economic opportunities for our people,” Ahmad said.
According to the agreement, revenue generated from leasing computing power from the iLamp network to AI firms and digital service providers will support investors financing the infrastructure rollout, while Katsina is also expected to earn from traffic-related enforcement systems linked to the platform.
Conflow said an assembly plant for the iLamp units is also being established in Katsina as part of the deal, a move expected to support local job creation, technology transfer, and industrial development. While the units will initially be manufactured in Morocco, Taiwan, and Latvia, local assembly is projected to deepen Nigeria’s participation in emerging AI infrastructure markets.
Industry analysts, however, note that while the technology could support lighter AI workloads and edge computing closer to users, it is unlikely to replace conventional hyperscale data centres needed for advanced AI model training and large-scale cloud operations.
Experts say the iLamp model may instead complement traditional infrastructure by serving as decentralised access nodes, reducing latency for local AI applications and lowering dependence on grid-powered facilities.
The initiative comes amid growing global scrutiny of the energy and environmental footprint of AI systems, with governments and technology firms increasingly exploring sustainable alternatives for powering next-generation digital infrastructure.
With the agreement, Katsina joins a small group of jurisdictions experimenting with unconventional data infrastructure models, potentially positioning Nigeria as an early mover in Africa’s emerging AI and smart city ecosystem.
Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), has decried persistent challenges such as vandalism, high operating costs, and regulatory bottlenecks threatening service delivery despite recent improvements in investment inflows.
Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, ALTON, warned that the continuous attack are putting strains on Nigeria’s telecom sector which serve as the backbone of the country’s economic and digital systems,
Adebayo, speaking in an interview on ARISE News, described telecommunications as the critical foundation supporting all sectors of the economy.
“Telecom operators are the infrastructure of infrastructures that supports all other sectors,” he said, stressing that the industry remains central to power, transport, security, and financial services.
Adebayo noted that the recent 50% tariff adjustment has helped restore investor confidence in the sector after years of underinvestment.
“It has restored confidence in the sector… we are seeing investment, we are seeing now the impact of that investment,” he said, adding that the sector is now beginning to recover gradually.
But, he warned that improvements in service quality remain constrained by multiple external challenges, including vandalism, insecurity, and regulatory bottlenecks.
“Things can be better… but there are also other external factors… vandalism, behavior of public actors, behavior of non-state actors,” he explained.
Adebayo highlighted the scale of infrastructure damage, particularly on fibre networks, noting a major disparity between international and domestic connectivity routes.
“The fiber optic in the Atlantic… has witnessed probably one outage in two years… the one running from Lagos to Kano, we record an average of about 40 cuts a day,” he said.
He explained that such disruptions significantly increase operating costs and affect service quality across the country.
Beyond vandalism, he pointed to theft of telecom equipment such as batteries and generators, as well as security challenges that prevent timely restoration of services in some regions.
“Issue of security… people are stealing batteries, they’re stealing generators,” he said, noting that some areas remain inaccessible during outages until security conditions improve.
Adebayo also called for urgent reforms in right-of-way charges and taxation policies, arguing that telecom infrastructure should be treated as essential national infrastructure.
“Right of way should become free of charge across the country… issue of multiple taxation… it has to be a thing of the past,” he stated.
On rising energy costs, he said operators are gradually adopting hybrid and renewable energy solutions, although the transition is slow and still exposed to vandalism risks.
“We are doing a lot on renewable energy and providing hybrid solution… but that takes time,” he said.
Adebayo concluded that while policy support and investment inflows are improving the outlook of the sector, sustainable progress will depend on stronger protection of telecom infrastructure and coordinated action among government, regulators, and communities to address vandalism, insecurity, and regulatory inefficiencies.
Ride-hailing company Uber has introduced a new feature that allows users to book hotel rooms directly through its app, as part of its strategy to evolve into a broader lifestyle and services platform.
Uber announced that the hotel booking service is being launched in partnership with Expedia Group, giving users access to more than 700,000 hotel properties worldwide.
The company said the collaboration is also expected to expand in future to include short-term rental listings from Vrbo.
According to Uber, the hotel booking tool offers features similar to traditional online travel platforms, including destination search, maps, and filters based on pricing, amenities and guest ratings.
Users can also complete bookings using payment information already saved on the app.
Speaking during a presentation in New York City, Uber Chief Executive Officer, Dara Khosrowshahi, said the company was broadening its offerings beyond transportation and food delivery.
“We’re no longer just an app for rides, or even a family of apps for rides and eats. Uber is now an app for everything,” he said.
Chief Executive Officer of Expedia, Ariane Gorin, said the partnership was aimed at simplifying travel planning for users.
“Together, we can reduce the number of steps, save people time and money,” she said.
Uber’s latest move builds on its expansion strategy which began with the launch of Uber Eats in 2014.
Initially focused on food delivery, Uber Eats has since expanded into retail services, allowing customers to order products such as cosmetics, groceries and electronics.
Industry analysts say the development reflects the growing global trend toward “super apps” — digital platforms that combine multiple everyday services within one ecosystem.
This model is already widely adopted in markets such as China, where platforms like WeChat and Alipay integrate messaging, payments, travel bookings and e-commerce services.
Competitors are also broadening their offerings.
For instance, Airbnb has expanded beyond accommodation to include bookable local experiences, wellness services and mobility options.
Uber also disclosed plans to integrate more artificial intelligence-powered tools into its platform.
The company said upcoming features would enable users to plan meals, generate shopping lists and arrange deliveries through conversational prompts, while a voice assistant is also in development to support hands-free navigation within the app.
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