Young African leaders leave for Japan’s youth Initiative

NAIROBI, KENYA: Nearly 40 young African leaders, among them 32 Kenyans, will leave for Japan at the end of this month as the third batch of successful candidates to the Master’s Degree and Internship Program of the African Business Education (ABE) Initiative for Youth. 

The group, which includes 32 Kenyans and 2 participants each from Burundi, Eritrea and Somalia, will join the Japanese government-funded strategic five-year programme that aims at providing 1,000 African youth with opportunities to study Master’s degrees at Japanese universities and do internships at Japanese enterprises. It was launched by the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe during the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD V) in Yokohama, Japan in June 2013. 

Speaking at a send-off ceremony held in Nairobi, Wednesday, H.E. Toshitsugu Uesawa, Japanese Ambassador to Kenya, said the event stood out as a testimony of Japanese investment in Africa’s development.  

He said Kenya remains the biggest recipient of Japanese official development assistance (ODA) in sub-Saharan Africa, citing examples of major Japanese-funded flagship projects such as the Mombasa port expansion project, Mwea Irrigation Development project and the Olkaria Geothermal Plant Development project among others. 

“Africa’s future will depend largely on a homegrown pool of enterprenuers, professionals, academics, technocrats, innovators and other experts who will design and implement development policies to benefit the continent into a new era of growth and prosperity,” Ambassador Uesawa said. 

Ms. Keiko Sano, Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Kenya office noted the young professionals drawn both public and private sector will pursue their studies in various fields such as agriculture, science, economics and information technology and engineering among others.      

Both Eritrea and Somalia will be sending their participants to the programme for the first time since its inception, she said.