EEP Africa is featured in a Power for All podcast about clean energy innovation and youth employment.
In February 2021, EEP Africa’s Tracy Dolan spoke with William Brent of Power for All about the challenges and opportunities for youth in the clean energy sector. The discussion looked at the analysis and findings in EEP Africa’s thematic brief Profiles of Change: Youth Opportunities in the Clean Energy Sector and highlighted the winners of EEP Africa’s new Rising Energy Leaders award.
The off-grid value chain is growing rapidly and generating a significant number of direct and indirect employment opportunities. Job creation is one of EEP Africa’s key objectives and projects in our portfolio have created over 9,000 jobs since 2010, of which about 40% are for youth. In addition to these jobs in direct generation and distribution of energy, many more income opportunities have been created through productive use of energy in the agricultural and service sectors.
A key challenge is the financing gap for start-up companies, which prevents them from scaling up fast enough and limits their ability to conduct targeted recruitment and training. Many companies supported by EEP Africa partner with educational institutions, youth organisation and innovation hubs to raise awareness about job opportunities and identify potential candidates. Targeted outreach efforts are especially important in order to increase women’s participation in the clean energy sector.
Listen to the podcast to hear about what EEP Africa and the companies in our portfolio are doing to stimulate jobs for youth.
