In 2020, after 10 years of support from Mastercard Foundation and celebrating their renewal of 10 future years of commitment, we released our most widely consumed publication, The Very Young Entrepreneur Scenario for Africa. To continue building on this thesis, we are preparing to release Version 2 of the paper in 2025.

In order for us to conduct this research we will enlist the help of the Anzisha National Council, a domestic advisory structure comprised of a group of six individuals, each of whom will bring together experts in the fields of education, policymaking, investing, media and entrepreneurship. These experts will contribute content for the VYES, which will form part of the larger VYES 2.0 policy paper, one of the most informed policy papers we will have done. VYES 2.0 will be released in 2025.

For the next edition, we will include five case studies on African countries with thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems – Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt, and South Africa. We are launching programs around each of our focus areas in these countries, including increasing very young entrepreneurs in each country enrolled in the Fellowship, extensive film and PR work to tell their stories nationally, engaging educators across country, and hosting roundtable working groups with policymakers and investors in country.

All this work to create a significant number of new jobs in the years to come, incentivize more youth to embrace career entrepreneurship, and publish updated research into the very young entrepreneur scenario for Africa. By establishing an Anzisha National Council in each of the above-mentioned countries, we are embarking on a multi-year campaign to produce the next edition of the Very Young Entrepreneur Scenario (VYES).