Conference Connecting African Youth Innovators with Investors Underway in Addis Ababa

Addis ababa: A conference, which aims at connecting African youth innovators driving climate action with investors, is underway in Addis Ababa. Speaking at the African Youth Innovation, Enterprise and Leadership in Climate Action conference today, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) Country Director for Ethiopia, Yihenew Zewdie, said the conference is a declaration of confidence in Africa's young people towards innovation for climate action.According to Ethiopian News Agency, African youths are developing climate-smart technologies that help farmers adapt to changing weather patterns, building digital platforms that connect producers to markets, finance, and knowledge. The youths are establishing businesses that create jobs, improve productivity, and strengthen rural economies, he added.Chair of African Group of Negotiators (AGN) for Climate Change, Nana Amoah, said Africa's greatest asset is not in its natural resource, but its young people, whose innovation, entrepreneurship, and leadership are already transforming the food systems and strengthening resilience across the continent. The challenge before us is no longer to prove that youth-led solutions work, but to create the enabling environment that allows these solutions to scale across our countries and communities within the continent, he noted."Our responsibility is to remove the barriers that prevent these innovations from reaching millions of farmers through stronger, better policies and increased access to finance, technology and capacity," Amoah emphasized. As climate impacts continue to affect agriculture, livelihoods, and food security, climate adaptation is no longer an option. It is an investment factor in Africa's future, Amoah underscored.The founder and CEO of Lersha, Abrhame Endrias, said even if there are several innovative youths across Africa with innovations that boost production and solve challenges, their innovations have been outdated due to a lack of connection between them and pertinent bodies, including investors. He added that such a continent-wide conference would create an enabling platform to create connections between innovators, financial institutions, and governmental institutions.The two-day conference under the theme: "Scaling Youth-Led Solutions for Resilient Food Systems, Climate Action, and Green Prosperity in Africa" drew participants, including innovators, researchers, and negotiators, from twenty African countries.