The eFounders Fellowship Programme to speed up Africa’s digital revolution

Alibaba Business School and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) have organised third e-Founders Fellowship cohort in Hangzhou, China, to discuss opportunities for digital transformations of business

About 29 young entrepreneurs from 11 countries across Africa joined the conference.

The eFounders Fellowship is part of a pledge by Jack Ma, Alibaba group’s executive chairman and UNCTAD special adviser for young entrepreneurs and small business, to empower 1,000 entrepreneurs from developing countries in five years.

Jack Ma said, “Together with UNCTAD, we want to empower Africa’s young entrepreneurs to not only succeed in their own ventures, but to return home and demonstrate to others how to build inclusive business models for the digital era.”

Dr Mukhisa Kituyi, secretary general of UNCTAD, noted, “With this third cohort of young entrepreneurs, UNCTAD and Alibaba are helping a new generation of business leaders to make the most of the opportunities opened up by the e-commerce revolution.”

Attendees were able to share knowledge in the areas of ecommerce, payments, logistics, cloud computing, marketing, cross-border trade and innovation that can be applied to their own markets.

Brian Wong, vice-president of Global Initiatives, stated, “Our goal is to inspire these young business leaders by sharing our story and by showing them the real impact that inclusive business models can make upon people’s daily lives.”

Alibaba previously hosted the inaugural class of African entrepreneurs in November 2017 and Asian entrepreneurs in March 2018.