Emowering Youths and Women
We strive to build our work around young men and women in the communities we work in. We leverage our efforts in food security, education, environmental conservation, health and WASH programs to create opportunities for youths and women to explore and earn decent livelihoods. To ensure continuity, we work to build the resilience of our beneficiaries by breaking down the barriers that deter them from exploring their full potential in improving their living conditions and trickle the benefits for communal development.
O INTRODUCTION
Youths and women constitute the largest population of Eastern and Central African inhabitants, at approximately 70 and 52%, respectively. However, they are the most disadvantaged in access to equal opportunities for personal and economic development. Women, for instance, are 15% more likely to live in extreme poverty, 7% more likely to face severe food insecurity, 30% more likely to be internet deprived, 90% engaged in informal, low-income jobs, 5.5% likely to establish a successful start-up and 15% more likely to lose their job as a consequence of the effects of climate and environmental degradation. Youths have not been spared either. The region has the highest rate of unemployed and under-employed youths globally. Youth unemployment ranges from over 50% to under 10%, depending on specific countries. On average, 25 to 30% of Eastern and Central African youths are unemployed. These figures are higher for young women compared to men.
O
We work with our development partners to support women/youth-owned and women/youth-led SMEs.
Dubbed ‘INUA MAMA’ and ‘INUA VIJANA’ initiatives, our SME intervention seeks to enhance the adaptive resilience and competitiveness of local businesses. This initiative helps SMEs access new markets through digital and social marketing, leverage data for increased targeted sales efforts, and network for access to credits. We support projects that enhance WASH, childhood education, and food security initiatives. We support boot camps for ideation and fund successful business ideas to their realization under blended mentorship support.
Mentorship and upskilling
Mismatch of skills among job seekers is one of the causes of high unemployment rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. Almost half of all working youths in sub-Saharan Africa are mismatched in skillset to the jobs they are currently involved in. Among these, over 35% of post-secondary and tertiary-level workers are under-skilled for the jobs they are employed in. Our mentorship program seeks to address these challenges for young men and women at the initial stages of entering the job market. Our programs are designed to integrate a blended mentorship program that supports corporate training in line with national and regional policy frameworks. We emphasize upskilling on green curricula, exhibiting heavy bias in selecting corporate training partners within the green solution industries.
O scaling up innovative solutions
We identify innovative business solutions founded and operated by youths and women in our areas of operation—food and nutrition security, health, water and sanitation, Education and environmental conservation—and support the initiatives to access investor funding and scale their impacts into newer and premium markets.
The FOPCOBIZZ DIgital solution
FOPCOBIZ is a cutting-edge digital accounting and employee management solution designed specifically for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Developed by FOPCO Africa, it empowers youth- and women-owned businesses—especially in the food, beverage, and agricultural sectors—to manage their finances and operations efficiently.
By replacing manual record-keeping, FOPCOBIZ provides a reliable digital platform that tracks stock, revenue, and expenses, manages employees, and generates clear business-health insights. With FOPCOBIZ, SMEs can visualize income, monitor expenses, and evaluate growth trajectories, making it easier to make informed decisions and access credit.
FOPCOBIZ is more than just software—it’s a tool for financial clarity, operational efficiency, and sustainable business growth