Nigeria’s Smartgenix Crowned Grand Prize Winner of the 15th JA Africa Company of the Year (COY) Competition
About JA Africa
As one of the Africa’s largest and most-impactful youth-serving NGOs, JA Africa delivers hands on, immersive learning in work readiness, financial health, entrepreneurship, sustainability, STEM, economics, citizenship, ethics, and more.
JA Africa has a presence in 23 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and collectively we reach more than one million youth in more than 3,000 schools each year. JA Africa works in Angola, Burkina-Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, DR Congo, Eswatini, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Our Impact
Alumni Stories
"By participating in JA we are being taught about entrepreneurship. By participating in JA we are being taught to create jobs. We are not being taught just to be employed but to employ other people by starting our own businesses."
"JA has helped me find my role in bringing development to my community. I now know what to do and value my time. JA has thought me entrepreneurship, financial discipline and the importance of saving."
"My JA experience in Nigeria introduced me to my love for finance, businesses and start-ups. As CEO, my team and I developed a magazine, publishing articles contributed by students and selling to students, parents and professors.”
The Facts
Africa graduates 11 million young people from schools and universities each year and only creates 3 million jobs annually.
It takes the average high school or university graduate in Africa up to six years to find their first job.
For the jobs that do exist, there is a gap between the skills employers are seeking and those young people possess.
Our Solution
Empower young people to own their future economic success
Work Readiness
JA prepares young people for entering the workforce by giving them first-hand insight into the world of work and developing their soft and hard skills to obtain, thrive in and keep a job. Programs teach students how to create CVs, how to interview for jobs, how to establish digital identities and how to behave in the workplace. They gain hard and soft skills, becoming proactive problem-solvers who create or add value for their employers.
Entrepreneurship
JA Africa empowers young people with the skillset and mindset to start and run their own businesses, and to apply entrepreneurial thinking to solve everyday problems. JA Africa’s entrepreneurship programs reach young people in and out of the classroom, giving them the opportunity to experience the realities of being business owners.
Financial Health
JA helps young people develop their ability to manage personal finances wisely and effectively. Starting as early as age seven, programs begin to introduce young children to essential concepts such as earning, saving, spending, and banking. By the time they’ve completed high school, they’ve gained familiarity with more complex concepts like budgeting, investment, taxation, fraud, and debt.
Our Partners
