Africa is going to be the place that creates the next up-and-coming global software entrepreneurs predicts Jørn Lyseggen, the founder CEO of Meltwater, in an interview for News24Live. “I have been to Africa more than 50 times since 2007 and I see so much talent and I see so many driven people and there is no question in my mind that all the up-and-coming youth in Africa are going to make a big impact also in the software space.”

In 2008 Lyseggen created the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (Mest) and the Mest Incubator programme in Ghana. The school provides training, mentoring and investment for budding entrepreneurs. Initially he wanted to create a school that helped potential talent but after “coming to Africa, I realised the incredible potential this continent has”. His goal is now to create globally successful companies which will create local jobs for Africans.

Lyseggen, is not the only enterprise working with young Africans hoping to increase entrepreneurial spirit and jobs on the continent. With the prediction made by the IMF (2013) that by 2020 170 million new job seekers will be needing to find employment, increasing the job market is obviously a top priority. In 2013 Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General, stresses the importance of boosting jobs in Africa and using entrepreneurship as a way to do it, in a message marking Africa Industrialisation Day. The Youth to Youth Fund (Y2YF) run by the Youth Employment Network, an interagency initiative of the ILO, the United Nations and the World Bank, focuses on supporting youth entrepreneurship in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya on a community level. These schemes seem to be increasing throughout Africa aimed at helping young entrepreneurs.