Airtel Kenya, one of the leading telecommunications companies in Kenya has partnered with the Ministry of Sports, Culture and the Arts in efforts to support youth employment through the ongoing national creative economy conference.
The two-day conference held at the Kenya National Theatre provides a platform for Kenyans in the creative industry to showcase the importance of the arts, creativity and culture in the country’s economic development as well as provide an avenue to learn and share knowledge.
Airtel Kenya in its continued show of commitment to enhancing the lives of its customers and especially the youth through technological solutions, offered free internet at the conference and has also committed to ensure internet connectivity at the various creative hubs set up by the government across the nation. Further to this, Airtel will facilitate better revenue share models with content providers to ensure that the musicians get better remuneration for their art, offer digital and social media support to highlight the positive stories by the youth in music, art, craft, ICT innovations as well as create specialized data bundles for the various sectors represented in the creative economy.
Speaking at the event, Airtel Kenya CEO, Adil El Youssefi expressed his joy to be part of the conference that seeks to offer employment opportunities to the youth. “As a company, we are devoted to support and help our youth reach their full potential because we value the role that they play in the country’s development. We are delighted to be in partnership with the government as we seek to empower our youth who are vital in boosting the country’s economic growth.”
“We commit to offer our support in ensuring that the creative hubs that have been set around the country are connected to the internet as we believe this will open a world of opportunities for the youth to gain knowledge, insight and business ideas.” Adil added.
Established in June 2013 the Creative Economy Work Group aims at demonstrating how Kenya can strengthen the creative economy to create employment thereby boosting the country’s economy as well as portray it as a viable economic sector in Kenya and influence legislation that is relevant to the creative economy sector. The overall goal of the Working Group is to see Kenya’s creative economy integrated in the national development agenda and supported and developed consistently and strategically by stakeholders at all levels of government, national and at the counties.
Statistics show that the youth make up 80% of the unemployed in Kenya which is a great number. In order to address this, there is great need for the private sector; academia and Government to collaborate in developing innovative business models, industry-relevant curricula and enabling favorable national policies.
Airtel continues to invest heavily in community capacity building through its CSR projects which focus on empowering, enabling and unlocking the potential of future generations to succeed and create.
Notable projects include the Airtel FREE Internet for schools which is a flagship program that seeks to provide internet access to students thus allowing them to gather meaningful information that will aid in their learning, so far over 250,000 students and over 300 schools in 36 counties in Kenya have been impacted by this program.
The Airtel Rising Stars program in association with the Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association (KSSSA) which has accorded many young boys and girls a platform to showcase their prowess in football.
And in the music arena, Airtel in partnership with TRACE TV has successfully run the Airtel Trace Music Star for two seasons, whereby music talents are scouted across Africa and the winner is given a cash prize and other prizes such as mentorship by well-known artistes etc.
