Meet the four Global Shapers working to provide digital skills for one million Africans

Africa’s countries are rich in two invaluable assets – a burgeoning youth population and vast natural resources.

For more than a century, foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa was almost exclusively focused on the extraction and export of natural resources. But since the turn of the millennium, the momentum has shifted — and in the past few years the trend has flipped.

These represent a remarkable opportunity for the continent at a time when industrialized nations are looking for new sources of talent and the push for sustainable industries and resources is at an all-time high.

With Africa’s ever-increasing youth population projected to double by 2050, the need for innovative and sustainable ways to support youth employment continues to grow.

Global investors now come to Africa for the promise of its people than for its physical properties. Africa is facing a turning-point opportunity to become a global economic powerhouse – the human capital destination.

In April 2021, Twitter announced the launch of its Africa headquarters in Accra, Ghana, to localize its services on the continent and beyond through local talent.

In March 2022, Microsoft reinforced its commitment to developing tech talent in Africa with the announcement of two new offices for the African Development Center (ADC) in Nairobi, Kenya and Lagos, Nigeria, after three years of successful operation in both countries.

Google recently also reinforced its commitment to artificial intelligence (AI) research on the continent with an investment in expanding its Accra-based AI Research Centre, which was announced in 2019.

While the challenge is daunting, it also has inspired so many of Africa’s creative and diligent young people to take charge of their own futures, coming up with innovative solutions to keep themselves employed and actively engaged.

Four young Africans from the Global Shapers Community, an initiative of the World Economic Forum, joined forces to give one million African’s access to digital skills, technology education with partners such as Twitter, IBM, Nvidia, Vodafone, Standard Bank, Oracle and Apple, among others, through the Hacklab Foundation.

The Hacklab Foundation is a nonprofit organization focused on preparing the youth for future jobs. This is achieved through digital skills training, boot camps, hackathons, internships, job shadowing and job placements. The Foundation has successfully placed more than 1,300 people in jobs since 2016 and grown a community of over 14,000 across 12 African countries.

The Hacklab Foundation is committed to impacting one millions young Africans and 400,000 women by 2030 through its Decade of Action Strategy, which was launched in 2021. Here are the four people helping shape the latest initiative.

Foster Awintiti Akugri is a computer scientist and process engineer, an entrepreneur with passion for volunteerism. His either years of experience spans several fields including technology, digital transformation, AI, innovation and policy design, community building, financial inclusion, business development, marketing, leadership, and more. In 2015, he founded the Hacklab Foundation.

Foster is also Head of Youth Banking & SB Incubator for Stanbic Bank Ghana, driving financial inclusion for the youth and supporting startups and SMEs to build sustainable and scalable businesses. He holds a BSc in Computer Science, an MBA in Business Process Management and is pursuing a GMBA in Analytics, Decision Making & Innovation at the European School of Management and Technology.

In 2018, Foster was the youngest participant at the World Economic Forum’s 48th Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

He has received several awards including 30 under 30 Future of Ghana Pioneers (2019), named Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leader (2019) by the Policy Center for the Global South, Morocco. He was also named amongst the Top 100 Most Influential Young Ghanaians (2019) and the Top 4 Most Influential Young Ghanaians in Science & Technology (2019) by Avance Media.

Foster was also named a Laureate for the President's Outstanding Youth Prize in Science and Technology (2019) by the Millennium Excellence Foundation under the patronage of HRH Otumfuo Osei Tutu II. He was listed amongst Top 50 Young CEOs (2019/2020/2022) in Ghana by Avance Media, nominated for the 40 under 40 Awards (2020) in Ghana, honored by the Humanitarian Awards Ghana (2020), and nominated for the Women’s Choice Awards for contribution to women empowerment.

Liz Nabakooza Kakooza is a communications and policy professional with more than nine years in the public and private sector in Uganda and is a renowned youth advocate. She is a mental health advocate who uses her lived experience to create mental health awareness. She is the founder of MindLab, a non-profit whose goal is to democratize mental health care and support through awareness, advocacy and access.

She is a Global Shaper from Kampala Hub, Past Curator and an Advisory Council Member. Through her work with the Forum, she developed a deep appreciation for technology and its potential to transform lives on the African continent and the realization of the youth dividend. She was instrumental in igniting conversations around the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) in Uganda, which eventually led to the creation of the 4IR taskforce by the President of the Republic of Uganda.

She holds a BA in Communications, is an Associate of Chartered Marketer (ACIM), a YALI East Africa Fellow (2017), an Inaugural Fellow of the Young and Emerging Leaders Project (YELP) 2017 where she now serves as Vice President of the Executive Committee for the LéO Africa Institute, MWF 2019 Arizona State University and is currently enrolled at Harvard Kennedy School. Liz has been recognized as one of the 60 Influential Young Ugandans and Executives 2022, Top 30 Under 30 in Uganda 2018 and Top 40 under 40 2021. Liz oversees the Hacklab Foundation operations for East Africa.

Lily Edinam Botsyoe is a graduate student in Information Technology and an Adjunct Instructor at the University of Cincinnati in the United States, she researches the deployment of technology in service of public needs. She is Executive Director for Operations and Trustee for the Hacklab Foundation.

She served on the Directing Council of the Internet Society’s Youth Special Interest Group and chairs the Committee for Women and Youth of the Internet Society, Ghana. As an aspiring Tech Policy Analyst and TEDx Speaker, she speaks widely on issues related to the internet with a particular interest in women and youth inclusion, accessibility, digital sustainability and cybersecurity.

Lily coordinates the Ghana Youth Internet Governance Forum and is a member of the steering committee for the West African Youth Internet Governance Forum. She is a graduate from the Mozilla Open Leaders Program, the Curator of the Global Shapers-Accra Hub (2021/2022), and an alumna of the YALI West Africa. She is part of the 30 women awarded the STEM Woman Honour 2020 at the National Women in STEM Honours in Ghana.

Imoh Eboh is a Nigerian actor, digital creative, filmmaker/producer, performer, storyteller and an educator for the future, with a BSc in International Relations and certificates in acting and producing. She is a development enthusiast and has wired her talents into the work she does. She is a force in entertainment, education and policymaking in Nigeria.

She is co-founder at ADANSONIA Foundation, where she ensures that particular children, get full education through scholarships. She tells stories through her filmmaking company Sweet Potato Films.

She is an actor known for travelling stage musical Ada The Country, Return of Jenifa II, Jenifa's Dairies, King of Boys, PENANCE and PUZZLED, among several other films.

As a digital creative, Imoh is in the tech space working with other youth to ensure digital advancement – as the future of work is in the present.

The future is indeed bright – particularly for young people in Africa.

With the digital advancements of the last decade, the proliferation of digital technology and skills has drastically improved the lives of young people and offered unprecedented access to opportunities once hard to reach.