Goodwall is thrilled to announce a major new partnership with Nation Media Group (NMG) to tackle African youth unemployment and help young people across the continent build skills and find great opportunities.
According to the African Development Bank Group, by 2050, Africa’s youth population will just about double, reaching an astounding 830 million. And, according to the Brookings Institute, youth unemployment has gotten as high as 60% in many parts of Africa, exacerbated in no small part by the pandemic.
Because Africa will likely become the world’s largest workforce by 2035 (World Bank), the troublingly high unemployment among its youth is particularly worrisome. Unfortunately, many of the skills African students are taught in school aren’t sought after in careers afterward.
But African youth need to be equipped for the future of work and empowered to find their own ideal career paths. The partnership between NMG and Goodwall aims to help young Africans access educational and professional opportunities by hosting a variety of engaging challenges throughout 2023 to help them strengthen or learn skills valued by employers, showcase their talents, and locate jobs or internships.
The first campaign in this alliance was #WatchOut, where young people were encouraged to share a minute-long video on Goodwall describing which sites they used to stay informed, connected, and entertained and how they thought this might change in the future. Eight winners won $150, for a cash prize pool totaling $1,200. This was followed by #GigLife, and there are more to come in the upcoming months.
We decided to partner with Nation Media Group because of its extensive reach and credibility in East Africa, and the fact that NMG has experience in creating valuable content for the continent. I am excited for the impact we will create together in 2023.
Tiago Cunha, Head of Strategy at Goodwall
Goodwall and its network of more than 2.2 million young people will provide the platform and environment for youth to participate, link to non-African partners, and manage the content framework. Nation Media Group will help in content development and content localization and distribution in Africa, while also linking to Africa-based organizations and governments for collaboration.
Nation Media Group is the largest independent media house in East and Central Africa, primarily serving audiences across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda.
As an organization, we have built key competencies in creating content targeted at different audiences. This partnership with Goodwall enables us to exploit this strength to educate and engage Generation Z, who are more likely to consume their content on social and digital platforms.
Monicah Ndung’u, Chief Operating Officer at NMG
Each campaign will run for one month and will award around 100 winners by the end of 2023.
To learn more about Goodwall’s partnership with Nation Media Group, see these posts:
