Dozens of young Africans have completed an entrepreneurship program that gave them a close look at China’s booming e-commerce and technology giants, a program funded by the China Merchants Foundation.
The C-STAR African youth innovation and Entrepreneurship program aim to promote employment and entrepreneurship among young Africans.
Since September 2022, young African entrepreneurs taking part in the program have followed online and offline courses focusing on digital innovation and cross-border e-commerce.
In the final phase of the program, 29 young African entrepreneurs visited major Chinese companies, such as Alibaba and Huawei, during a 10-day trip. During the visit, the young people presented their entrepreneurial projects and held discussions with the Chinese companies.
At the closing ceremony, held on Wednesday at Tsinghua University in Beijing, Kidist Tesfaye, a member of C-STAR and founder of Yene Health, called on the young African entrepreneurs to build businesses and seek advice and collaboration with the Chinese organizations they visited.
China is Africa’s largest trading partner and its fourth-largest source of investment. Official data shows that bilateral trade between China and Africa reached 282 billion dollars in 2022. In the first four months of the year, new direct investment from China in Africa totaled 1.38 billion dollars, up 24% year-on-year.