When Kate Kallot turned on her microphone and boldly asserted that artificial intelligence (AI) for climate action should not be confined to the Global North, the room began to shift. Hers was a demonstration of a new form of activism and actionism deeply rooted in the ownership of homegrown solutions, as exemplified by her organization, Amini Corp. With a description of Amini’s mandate to fill data gaps in Africa and incorporate indigenous practices into that data — projecting to enhance cocoa sustainability in Ghana and crop yields in South Africa — Kallot’s speech received a standing ovation. An unapologetic advocate for the emergence of Africa’s women and youth, I chose to interpret this roar of applause as a signal of the broader acceptance that indeed Africa&#8217;s time has come to adjust its seating position from the back of the room to the center of the global decision-making table. Kallot, an exemplar of Africa leveraging innovation to take ownership of its challenges, represented the constituency of African women and youth whose mission to redefine the continent’s narrative on self-help, self-empowerment, and self-elevation was both seen and felt at the COP28 conference in Dubai.



To establish why it was crucial to see and hear Africa&#8217;s women and youth in action at COP28, it’s imperative to establish the stark reality driving their presence. Africa grapples with a perilous triple threat: the relentless impact of climate change, heightened vulnerability, and a distressing lack of preparedness — an uncomfortable truth we must confront. In 2023 alone, devastating floods wreaked havoc in the Libyan port city of Derna, an earthquake struck Morocco, wildfires swept across Algeria, and Cyclone Freddy triggered landslides in Malawi – the epicenter of the disaster – killing thousands. Simultaneously, severe floods caused chaos in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.



The escalating drought conditions in the Horn of Africa pushed parts of Somalia to the brink of famine, leaving more than 23 million people across the region facing severe hunger, according to the United Nations World Food Programme. As if that wasn&#8217;t devastating enough, when the long-awaited rains arrived in Somalia, they were so intense that livestock, homes, and farmlands were washed away, while schools and health facilities were forced to close their doors. Why is this so distressing? Because countries like Somalia, contributing only 0.03% of total global emissions, are disproportionately affected by climate change. The most vulnerable, especially women and children, bear the brunt of these disasters.



While moderating the High-Level Event on Artificial Intelligence for Climate Action, hosted by the UNFCCC Technology Mechanism in collaboration with the COP28 UAE Presidency, I observed Africa&#8217;s proactive efforts in developing customized approaches to climate action. Instances such as Senegal&#8217;s 2020-2025 strategy, which strives for &#8220;digital for all&#8221; to bridge digital divides, especially for populations most vulnerable to climate change, and GIZ&#8217;s project in Kenya using AI for forest protection and crop yield predictions, showcased the continent&#8217;s commitment to innovation.



As these advancements unfolded on one side of the expansive COP28 landscape, other Africa-focused initiatives, including the African Women Clean Cooking Support Programme (AWCCSP) initiated by the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Samia Suluhu Hassan, and Kenya&#8217;s African Women Studies Centre (AWSC) dedicated to integrating women into climate action as part of Kenya&#8217;s journey to Gender-responsive climate justice, highlighted the importance of women leading interventions that directly impact their livelihoods.



Perhaps even more exciting was the presence of youth leaders like Ugandan climate change advocate, Vanessa Nakate and Ghanaian Climate Reality Leader, Maxwell Beganim, whose audacious emphasis on the urgent need for sustainable action and their impassioned calls for climate justice reverberated throughout COP28, ensuring that the voices of Africa&#8217;s youth were not only heard but profoundly felt in shaping the collective discourse on climate change and its impact on the continent&#8217;s future.



My celebration of Africa’s women and youth at COP28 does not exist in isolation. It represents the growing hope for an intersectionality between Africa&#8217;s stark reality on climate change, the continent&#8217;s burgeoning surge of solution-providing innovations for climate action, and the collective efforts aimed at addressing and mitigating the profound challenges that the continent faces.

COP28 UNFCCC Climate Conference: Day Eleven

Africa-Focused Initiatives At COP28 Amplifying The Voices Of Women And Youth

Siddharth Chatterjee the UN Resident Coordinator with CS Eugene Wamalwa, Heads of Missions from the United Nations Mission and other development partners visited the Frontier Counties Development Council Counties with a view of leveraging on opportunities considering geographic proximities in addressing shared developmental challenges in the marginalized Counties. Photo Credit- West Pokot County, February 2020



Happy New Year, Kenya.



Several milestones in my personal and professional life have made Kenya a cherished place for me. I started my UNICEF career in Rumbek, South Sudan in June 2000, and my rest and recuperation breaks were in Nairobi. In fact Kenya was the first African country I had ever visited and, frankly, it was love at first sight.



I came back in November 2004 to serve with UNICEF Somalia based out of Nairobi, and in 2006 I got married in Kenya. My son who was 3 years old in 2014, has had his formative years growing up in Kenya, and considers himself Kenyan.



The following year I left to serve in Iraq, and I wondered if I would get an opportunity to return to Kenya. Seven years later, it happened: in April 2014 I came back as the United Nations Population Fund Representative (UNFPA) Representative and in August 2016, I was selected to lead the UN Country Team in Kenya as the UN Resident Coordinator and the UNDP Resident Representative. &nbsp;



Over the years, my bond with the country has been forged through jubilation and the shared suffering of tragedy. I have rejoiced at improvements in many health indicators in counties such as Mandera, Wajir, Garissa, Marsabit, Isiolo and Lamu where an unconscionable number of women used to die in childbirth, but where great progress has been made. I have also mourned in horror at the number of lives lost to terror attacks, the <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20141202164658-xlpzv/">murder of 36 quarry workers by terrorists in Mandera county</a> (I was in Mandera the same day), the slaughter of innocent students in Garissa University and the dastardly attack at <a href="https://youtu.be/29Ml0evxrCc">Nairobi’s DusitD2 hotel</a>.



The end of my tenure as UN Resident Coordinator to Kenya falls on 13 January 2021, with new experiences and challenges awaiting me as I prepare to take up my next position as the United Nations Resident Coordinator (designate) to China.&nbsp;



This is not the end of my relationship with Kenya, but rather an opportunity to strengthen my ties with the country, and for sharing my knowledge and first hand insights about its great potential. It is also a chance to entrench South-South-Cooperation, a crucial part of the answer to Kenya’s, and more broadly Africa’s, unique opportunities to accelerate growth.



I realize that Kenya still faces formidable challenges, and the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to deepen this even more. Devolution has brought considerable resources and autonomy to counties, and yet lack of capacity, weak financial and regulatory oversight, will continue to hinder efforts to combat the asymmetry of wealth and human prosperity which will be a major obstacle to Kenya’s rise.



I am delighted with the country’s progress towards its Vision 2030 aspirations and the SDGs goals. School enrolment rates are up; more families are accessing maternal and child health services; social, economic and political opportunities for women have increased; major inroads have been made against child marriage and FGM, with President Kenyatta personally leading on this.



My experiences as the UN Resident Coordinator in Kenya have reiterated that by prioritizing investments in women and youth, Africa’s real potential can be unleashed, and I am proud of the support on this that we have been able to provide through the entire UN Kenya Country Team.



By 2030 agri-business will be US$ 1 trillion worth in Africa. Almost two-thirds of Kenya’s population is below the age of 30, and the future of food production rests in their hands. Kenya’s economy is anchored in agriculture, where 70% of the population earns its livelihood.



In most parts of the world, crop yields have grown ahead of population increases, helping to free them from hunger and famine, but not in Africa. We looked for creative and sustainable ways to harness Kenya’s strong internet penetration to exploit information technology that adds value and strengthens the economic appeal of agri-business for young people and creates digital jobs as well.



President Kenyatta&nbsp;<a href="https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/business/2019/11/african-leaders-have-a-duty-to-empower-the-youth-president-kenyatta/">has noted</a> that “the current generation of young people has the potential of expanding Africa’s productive workforce, promoting entrepreneurship and becoming genuine instruments of change to reverse the devastation caused by climate change.”&nbsp;



Africa’s demographic boom has been hailed as its biggest promise for transforming the continent’s economic and social outcomes, but only if the right investments are made to prepare its youthful population for tomorrow’s world. <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/current-affairs/2020/08/03/with-proper-investment-in-youth-kenyas-potential-for-progress-is-unlimited/">Kenya launched the Generation Unlimited initiative spearheaded by the Head of State</a>, and can serve as a blueprint to harness the demographic dividend that Africa’s youth represent.



Women’s empowerment was our other key pursuit, with special emphasis on access to sexual and reproductive health information and services.&nbsp; Without this, Kenya’s population is likely to continue its rapid increase, putting pressure on land and water resources, threatening livelihoods, food security, and straining already weak health systems. Gains made in women’s sexual reproductive health and rights took several steps backward in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic<a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/opinion/2020/04/29/why-reproductive-rights-must-be-a-critical-part-of-our-arsenal-to-fight-pandemics/">.&nbsp;Reproductive rights must be a critical part of our arsenal to fight future pandemics.</a>



It is in Kenya also that I witnessed creative ways of overcoming bureaucracy. Large organisations are often accused of responding too late or with too little in times of crisis, and my tenure saw many. Drought, floods and the worst locust invasion in 70 years, plus the Covid-19 pandemic, all upended much hard-earned progress. As a team however, we went beyond individual UN agency mandates in partnership with the Government of Kenya to quickly establish rapid responses to these emergencies, reducing the socio-economic impact, earning the confidence of the Government and overturning the common perception of the UN as an unwieldy bureaucracy.



The Government’s leadership was meritorious on all counts and that is why <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/opinion/2020/09/30/the-triple-humanitarian-crisis-and-why-kenya-deserves-an-a-in-its-response/">I have stated unequivocally why Kenya deserves an A+ for its response to the triple humanitarian crisis.</a>



I am proud to have been part of many milestones in the partnership between both levels of the Government of Kenya and the UN, and to count on the unfailing support of the leadership of Kenya at all levels of Government. &nbsp;Kenya’s potential is boundless, and the country now offers stronger platforms for new shared-value investments than ever before.



I also express my sincere appreciation to the entire UN family in Kenya, the development partners, our donors and well-wishers and civil society partners and, most of all, the wonderful people of Kenya.&nbsp;



With a firm belief in a common destiny, I intend to keep telling the story of the emerging powerhouse that is Kenya.



My wife, son and I carry Kenya in our hearts.



Thank you for everything. Your generosity, love and friendship is nonpareil.



God Bless, Kenya.



Asante, Kenya, na kwaheri hadi tutakapo kutana tena!

Siddharth Chatterjee with CS Eugene Wamalwa, Heads of Missions from the United Nations Mission and other development partners visited the Frontier Counties Development Council Counties with a view of leveraging on opportunities considering geographic proximities in addressing shared developmental challenges in the marginalized Counties. Photo Credit- West Pokot County, February 2020

Frontier-Counties

This Is Not A Goodbye, Kenya

Just as the country celebrates its diamond jubilee, police brutality protests in Nigeria and the disbanding of a rogue unit.



Kunle Martins vividly recalls when he almost lost his life in Lagos because of an iPhone 6. The day started on a positive note. He received a delivery of the new phone sent by his family the night before, in celebration of his 25th birthday, to his flat in Surulere.



“This was my dream phone and I had been telling everyone how I was saving up to buy it and never expected my family to give me such a generous gift,” says the young man who works as a customer service operator for a leading bank in Lagos. After setting up his phone, he set off for work as he usually does around 5AM to catch the local bus to Victoria Island.



Then things took a sinister turn.



“As I was approaching the bus stop, an unmarked car pulled up in front of me and two men with guns forced me into the back of the car where there were another two men in the back seat. They tied my hands and let me lie down on the floor as they searched my pockets. I thought they were armed robbers initially but they said they were from SARS and they had been following me because they suspected me of being a Yahoo boy (internet fraudster).”



“I tried to protest and they slapped me with the back of their gun and broke my front teeth. There was blood everywhere. They asked me how a young boy like me could afford such an expensive phone. They drove me to an ATM and told me to log into my account to prove that I was not a criminal. I had only N40,000 ($104) in my bank account to take me to the end of the month. They cleared all my money and took my phone and left me by the side of the road,” says Martins.



This was not the first time he had been harassed by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) unit of the Nigerian police force.



“I am always being stopped by SARS especially because I carry a laptop bag and they use that to determine whether I have money or not. I explain that I work with the bank, show them my work ID and I always ensure I have about N1,000 ($2) on me and my wallet hidden whenever I move around in Lagos. Most of the time, they push me about, slap me and take the N1,000 naira.”



This time he was not so lucky. His story is part of the ongoing outcry of young Nigerians against years of police brutality, kidnapping and even murder committed by the SARS unit. With protests breaking out across Nigeria over the past five days, the #EndSARS social media campaign has ignited widespread anger both locally and with the Nigerian expatriate communities around the world.



Established in 1992 with the mandate of putting an end to violent crime and the high prevalence of robbery in Lagos, SARS operated as faceless, tactical teams that traveled in unmarked vehicles.



“The idea was to create a special police unit that could blend into the community without being noticed and disrupt the growing criminal elements across Lagos who were known for carrying out violent armed robberies. They were created to act as a last line of defense to protect their fellow Nigerian brothers and sisters, not torture them,” says Obinna Johnson.



On a rainy night out with his friends, he was stopped by two SARS operatives who demanded they pay a bribe before they were allowed to proceed to the club. When he refused, the SARS officers opened fire in the air and asked them to step out of the car and lie face down on the muddy floor.



“They then proceeded to search our pockets to take our money and searched our cars to take the Hennessy bottles that we had bought for the party we were going to and left,” recalls Johnson.



Nobody ever files a police report mainly due to fear of reprisal and also because they believe nothing will ever be done. The anonymity was considered vital for taking on the criminals that terrorized Lagos at the time but over the years this has led to abuse against Nigerian youth. There have been widespread allegations of the SARS unit targeting well-dressed youths, those with tattoos and dreadlocks and harassing them for money, torturing and even killing those who resist.



Osai Ojigho, Director of Amnesty International Nigeria, puts the blame on the failure of the Nigerian authorities to bring an end to the gross human rights violations carried out by SARS.



“This unit has consistently used torture and other ill treatment to carry out police investigations. We have also uncovered torture chambers within the Nigerian police as well as countless testimonies of people being detained and tortured which is against their fundamental human rights despite the 2017 anti-torture act,” says Ojigho.



The global human rights organization have documented some 82 cases of abuse and killings since January 2017 to May 2020 as highlighted in their report Nigeria: Horrific reign of impunity by SARS makes mockery of anti-torture law.



The widespread demonstrations have led to the government dissolving SARS this week but Nigerian youth and victims of this corrupt unit say this is only the beginning.



“We are demanding immediate release of all arrested protestors, justice for all deceased victims of police brutality and appropriate compensation for their families, setting up an independent body to oversee the investigation and prosecution of all reports of all police misconduct (within 10 days), a psychological evaluation and retraining of all disbanded SARS officers before being redeployed and an Increase in police salary so they are adequately compensated for protecting lives and property of citizens,” says Banky Wellington, a Nigerian singer and politician.



According to a report by Reuters, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has promised that the government would bring police officers responsible for misconduct to justice after protestors were met with a harsh response when police opened fire with live ammunition against demonstrators.



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1229008074-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-48378" width="414" height="276" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1229008074-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1229008074-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1229008074-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1229008074-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1229008074-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1229008074-600x400.jpg 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 414px) 100vw, 414px" /><figcaption>Protesters demonstrate outside the Nigeria High Commission in central London. (Photo by Kirsty O&#8217;Connor/PA Images via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



Young people between the ages of 17 and 30 are the most at risk of arrest, torture or extortion and are a significant population of the demonstrations taking place all over the country.



“It is unacceptable that the police will shoot with live bullets at peaceful protestors. One person lost their life and we must find those responsible and bring them to justice immediately,” says Tolu Ogunlesi, special assistant on digital media to the president of Nigeria.



The governor of Lagos state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in a recent tweet advised “we are setting up a trust fund to compensate the families of police brutality in Lagos state” even though no amount of money can reduce their pain. The trust fund will be supervised by a team appointed transparently by members of the public.



But will there be real change after the protests are over?



“Nigerians are always outraged but they now know that it never lasts. It is just a matter of time and people go on with their business. The victims are the ones who feel the pain. For those who have died at the hands of SARS, it is over, they have been killed. After trending the hashtag and being outraged for a few hours, they will move on but the families will never move on and then you are left thinking who is going to be the next victim,” says Aisha Yesufu, the hijab-wearing revolutionary leading the #EndSARS protest.

EndSARS Protesters Block Highways In Lagos

Nigeria Dissolves SARS But The Youth Demand Justice

Rwanda’s natural beauty is distracting. Almost every suburb in its capital Kigali boasts a vista of rolling green hills, and in the city, new skyscrapers glisten in the sun.
It’s difficult for visitors to imagine that the country, run like an efficient corporation and often referred to as Africa’s Switzerland today, was once the scene of a mass tragedy that claimed a million lives. President Paul Kagame’s ‘Vision 2020’ is a strategy to transform Rwanda into a middle-income country, working on all its strengths. Luckily, besides natural resources, Rwanda is also blessed with a young generation with an entrepreneurial mindset.
Teta Isibo is one such youngster making a mark. When she quit her job in urban planning in the mayor’s office in Kigali to become a businesswoman, she knew her plan was in line with that of her country’s.
“Rwanda has instilled in us confidence as youth, and that’s safety. I don’t know if I would have been able in another country to say well I didn’t study fashion and I didn’t study business, but I want to do a fashion business and I’m going to,” says Isibo.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29474 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/IMG_1523-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_1523-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_1523-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_1523-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_1523-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_1523.jpg 1023w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Five years on, the 28-year-old is a self-taught designer and founder of Inzuki Designs, a local company started in 2010 specializing in jewelry, accessories and home décor with a Rwandan touch.
“We’re trying to create a contemporary African lifestyle brand that portrays the new Rwanda, the new Africa, that shows a different side of Rwanda, a different side to Africa. It’s not just sad stories, it’s not just our past, but it’s also the hope that we have and this whole new energy we have in Rwanda and Africa as a whole.”
The bright colors of her statement jewelry pieces in her Kigali store are a departure from the customary black-and-white color scheme of Kinyarwanda culture. Inzuki Designs uses traditional local materials such as cow horn, beads, palm leaves and sisal, a fiber made of grass that typically grows in East Africa’s Great Lakes region.
Starting with a capital of $4,000, she believes she is on the right track.
“We are not yet where we want to be in terms of success. Our sales volume has increased by over 75%.”
Inzuki is named after the Kinyarwanda word for bees, and Isibo likens her clients to bees, bold women who aren’t afraid of color. And bringing her designs to life are women’s cooperatives, such as that of Bernadette Bankundiye’s, who started in her home backyard in the Kigali neighborhood of Kagugu.
“My friends saw me working and were inspired to join me. As time went by, we started working together, sharing ideas, meeting to discuss our plans and artwork,” says Bankundiye.
By 2009, Bankundiye and the women in her neighborhood formed a cooperative to supply Inzuki Designs. While it is still too expensive to patent her products in Rwanda, Isibo has worked hard to ensure the loyalty of the cooperatives she works with so that her designs are not replicated and that the quality surpasses that of the many markets in the city.
The exchange with Inzuki Designs is more than just supply and demand. For many of the women who are part of these cooperatives, it’s a means of rebuilding their lives post the genocide.
“Through Inzuki, we have been able to move on with our lives. Our children have been able to go to school, we all have benefitted from medical insurance, improved our lifestyle, built our own homes. We are happy and feel Teta stands out as a role model for all young girls and women,” says Bankundiye.
As determined as these women are to move on, the events of 1994 are unforgettable. Born in Kenya, Isibo was raised in Uganda where her family lived as refugees after the first attacks against the Tutsis in 1959.
“We were young but we could understand what was going on. It was a very sad time for everyone. You’d switch on the TV and you’d see bodies floating into Lake Victoria in Uganda. We were old enough for my parents to explain to us that these were Tutsis being killed,” says Isibo.
Her late father was a translator and interpreter who spoke 10 languages. Both her parents have worked for the United Nations in Tanzania; her mother still does.
Returning as a young woman educated in the UK and fluent in English has given Isibo an edge. In 2008, English replaced French as the official medium of education and business, and refugees returning from Anglophone countries would benefit the most from the  ‘Vision 2020’ program.
The government has also placed great emphasis on gender equality and today Rwanda’s parliament boasts the highest number of women anywhere in the world. While women played a remarkable role in the reconciliation process, those gains have not quite reached the private sector. Still, Isibo believes Rwanda’s gender policies have given her a platform to build her career.
“Being a woman in business here is not like it would be in another country. You don’t think ‘I can never make it, I don’t have a chance’. They really push to promote you.”
When Isibo won a national entrepreneurship competition that provided the funds to kick-start her business, her male competitors in the ICT and agriculture sectors assured her that her strategy to turn fashion and design in Rwanda into a viable industry was a winning one.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29475 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/IMG_1527-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_1527-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_1527-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_1527-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_1527-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_1527.jpg 1023w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Isibo is determined to capitalize on the country’s vision of becoming a regional technology hub. She is set to launch an online store for her growing international clientele.
“All my marketing is [through] social media. I’ve never paid for marketing. I just do great photoshoots in which the models are my friends. I think that’s the great thing about having a network because we all help each other. I know if I’m stuck with something, I can call upon one of my friends and get some pro bono advice and I know that I can do the same for them.”
The country is determined to overcome its past and it is the young men and women like Isibo who will reap the benefits of a reconciled Rwanda in 2020 and beyond.

IMG_1541

The Bold THE Dutiful

When 22-year-old Greg Maloka heard that YFM, a new youth radio station, was to launch in Johannesburg, he rushed to join the thousands of hopefuls vying for a spot on air.
Ever since Maloka was a young boy in the township of Diepkloof in Soweto, South Africa, he dreamed about being a charismatic, robed figure on stage, commanding an audience of thousands. In the early days of this longing, he determined that he was going to achieve this by either becoming a teacher or a priest.
<div id="attachment_528" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-528" class="wp-image-528 size-medium" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/322-259_1-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />Kaya FM&#8217;s Greg Maloka, Johannesburg; 14 February 2012 &#8211; Photo by Brett Eloff</div>
So the young hopeful, then a final year student majoring in typing skills at the former Technikon Northern Transvaal (TNT), took a bus to the auditions. Just as he had expected, the snaking queue held hundreds upon hundreds of eager hopefuls.
“When I saw the very long queue, I immediately realised that there would probably be about 50 other people—if not more—who would be far better than me. Furthermore, I was all too aware that the station would be looking for between 10 to 15 people, maximum,” says Maloka.
That’s when the light-bulb flickered on.
“Realizing that I needed something that was going to make me stand out from the hundreds who had the same ambition, and probably some with more talent, I decided to put pen to paper and to list in bullet form the things that I thought were going to make this new station work.
“As I sat in the queue, I started observing and listening to the conversations of the eight or so guys who were processing the auditions. These guys were clearly earmarked for top positions in the station and luckily for me, I had been part of the TNT Campus Radio Station so I was familiar with the challenges that face a station [targeting] a youth market.”
The moment of truth arrived. Maloka walked into the sound booth for his turn to charm the judges. He paused at the door and handed over the handwritten “business plan” to the then music manager, the late Arabi Mocheke.
“He took those pages and disappeared. The notes on those pages were largely based on my own observations—what I thought they should do with the station; how they should position the brand; what kind of music they should play; and even the kind of DJs they should have on the station,” says Maloka.
Maloka’s audition was soon over. He waited around the station with the other young hopefuls, but he knew fate was on his side when Mocheke, the music manager, pushed through the crowd looking for him.
“He returned with the notes and started questioning me about the stuff that I had written. He asked me how I knew the things mentioned there and proceeded to invite me to a management meeting that was going to be held the next day.
“Needless to say, I was up at the crack of dawn and was on number 28 bus. By the time that fateful management meeting concluded, I was now in charge of auditioning the same people I was queuing with the day before,” he concludes joyfully.
So never stop thinking, or scribbling, if you want to get ahead.
<h3>Who Is Greg Maloka?</h3>
Greg Maloka was among the group that pioneered the launch and establishment of Johannesburg youth radio station YFM, in 1997. The station has been widely credited with bringing about a revolution in youth culture. YFM brought kwaito music to South Africa’s listeners and promoted the rise and infiltration of hip hop music. Most importantly, the station supported young entrepreneurs by giving them a radio and print platform to communicate their services. Maloka has held practically all the important positions within the station, with stints as program manager, music manager, station manager and then eventually, CEO and managing director. He left YFM in 2003 after falling out with the station’s board and went on to be partner in Instant Grass—a trends and insights agency that’s based in Cape Town. Maloka is currently the managing director of Kaya FM, one of the fastest-growing independent radio stations in South Africa.

Tag: youth

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Africa-Focused Initiatives At COP28 Amplifying The Voices Of Women And Youth

This Is Not A Goodbye, Kenya

Nigeria Dissolves SARS But The Youth Demand Justice

The Bold THE Dutiful

The Right Notes, Right On Queue