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Coca-Cola Beverages Africa invests in skills development to empower youth

Coca-Cola Beverages Africa invests in skills development to empower youth

Youth are receiving critical skills development, particularly much-needed entrepreneurship skills to start and build their businesses, thanks to investments by Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA).

As the continent celebrated International Youth Day under the theme, “Intergenerational Solidarity”, the theme boldly acted as a reminder of the need to collaborate to strengthen key partnerships across Africa to ensure that no one gets left behind.

“According to the United Nations, small businesses run by youth and young women account for close to 60% of Africa’s GDP, creating about 450 million jobs,” Coca-Cola said in a statement.

“Economic inclusion plays a critical role in providing economic opportunities to the youth by providing them access to markets and other economic activities,” said Tshidi Ramogase, Group Director of Public Affairs, Communication and Sustainability at CCBA.

Ramogase added that developing entrepreneurs for the future creates the possibility to link them to the Coca-Cola value chain today or in the future.

“We aim to boost income, provide decent earning potential, and improve skills and business knowledge for youth, and in particular women, resulting in them accessing other opportunities,” he said.

Meanwhile, in Namibia, Coca-Cola Namibia has partnered with COSDEF to enable skill training for women and youth. The Namibian bottler for CCBA also supported students at STADIO and Mining and Technology to train Namibians in the technical skills required by the mining, engineering, and other industries.

The company indicated that it also became a subsidy partner for the Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board programme, Know2Grow NextGen Entrepreneurs 2022. “The K2G initiative will enable the scaling of these businesses, growing them from micro and small entities to medium, and even large entities.”

“By investing in youth economic inclusion, we have created shared value in hopes of a better-shared future – enabling improved livelihoods for young people, their families, and their communities, while inclusively expanding our business,” Ramogase concluded.


 

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