How to accelerate climate adaptation and resilience? In Africa, a few young, entrepreneurial go-getters are offering pioneering solutions for their own communities. Ten under-35s from Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya, and Zambia have spent the last number of months training and learning more about the fundamentals of climate adaptation, budgeting, cashflow projection, and how to execute business plans.
The training and mentorship opportunity was made possible through the Youth Adaptation Solutions Challenge or YouthADAPT, in a partnership between Climate Investment Funds (CIF), the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), and African Development Bank (AfDB). The competition supports young entrepreneurs on the continent to incubate and accelerate climate adaptation and resilience business solutions and create climate-related jobs.
The ten trainees, of which half are women, received business grants of up to $100,000 each and are participating in an intensive 12-month business accelerator program to grow their micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The program aims to deepen their understanding of climate adaptation and prepare them for venture funding so they can make the necessary investments to scale their businesses.
Ifeoluwa Olatayo is the 33-year-old founder of Soupah Farm-en-Market Limited in Nigeria. Her company specializes in soilless cultivation systems that produce faster growing, healthier plants, and bigger yields. This technique also uses 95% less water compared to traditional farming methods. Ifeoluwa says the Youth ADAPT challenge has given her far more than just training. For her, it’s about expanding her knowledge, her tools, and her long-term goals. In accepting the YouthADAPT award, she said:
“[YouthADAPT] want to see that we have reached a certain impact and how can we impact ten times more than what we were having before. […] That can only happen if there’s expansion. Expansion in terms of machinery, and in terms of infrastructure and systems.”
Ifeoluwa’s mission is to set up 80 greenhouses on rooftops in 15 major cities in Nigeria by 2025 to decrease malnutrition and increase access to nutritious food under a changing climate.
For 31-year-old Carolyne Mwangi, owner of Kimplanter Seedlings and Nurseries Ltd in Kenya, YouthADAPT can help her develop her drought-resistant seedling business. Besides seeds, her company also provides training on climate adaptation and agronomic support to over 1 200 farmers in climate-affected communities. By the end of the program, Carolyne aims to add four new varieties of drought-resistant seedlings to her product list.
And in Cameroon, Matiedje Gislaine co-founded Mumita Holdings Limited to help vegetable farmer networks access modern, sustainable production tools so that they can produce all-year round in the face of unpredictable rain patterns due to a changing climate. Through the YouthADAPT, she wants to learn how to identify new markets for her enterprise. By next year, she also plans to reach at least 20 000 African indigenous vegetable (AIV) farmers with low-cost greenhouses and solar-powered irrigation systems. As a young woman under 35 years old, she wants to challenge perceptions that she is too young to run a successful business.
These three young entrepreneurs are the new generation of climate leaders that are developing private sector solutions to help their communities fight the impacts of climate change. During the YouthADAPT awards ceremony held at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland last year, CIF Chief Executive Officer, Mafalda Duarte noted:
“Young entrepreneurs are powerful agents of change, and we need their drive, boldness, and creativity in the global effort to implement bold solutions to the climate crisis.”
The ten winners of Youth ADAPT 2021 were selected from over 2000 young climate entrepreneurs and youth-led MSMEs. Young African entrepreneurs will have another chance to enter again later this year when the YouthADAPT challenge is held in the run-up to COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt in November this year.