In the digital age, what entrepreneurial opportunities and challenges do young people in China and Africa face? What new pathways can they take to achieve their goals?

The year 2026 marks the China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges. On March 29, the Global Link for Youth Actions China-Africa Youth Development Project Exchange and Communication Event was held at the China Youth Daily Youth Innovation IP Factory in Beijing. With the theme "Digital Empowerment for a Better Future of China-Africa Cooperation," eight young representatives from China and African countries delivered roadshow presentations on integrated projects combining artificial intelligence with multiple sectors.

Liu Kai, Deputy Secretary-General of the All-China Youth Federation; Wu Dezu, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of China Youth Daily; Joseph Olivier Mendo'o, Co-founder of the China-Africa Youth Federation (CAYF); and Fuad Jena, President of the Ethiopian Youth Council, attended the event and delivered speeches, encouraging young people from China and Africa to take practical actions to promote youth digital empowerment and contribute to China-Africa cooperation.

Zhang Xinran, co-founder of Chinese AI startup ComindX, presented the company’s Exclusive AI Employee solution. The project is designed to provide secure, personalized AI services for corporate users while ensuring data security. She introduced that the project can save users 80% of working time in relevant fields, with plans to launch tailored AI assistants for consulting, finance and other sectors in the future.

Fatou Hydra from The Gambia introduced AiKona, an education empowerment project powered by AI. Currently piloting services for 150 students across four African countries, the project is constrained by insufficient resources and other bottlenecks. She hopes to collaborate with Chinese partners to develop offline AI education models and multilingual tools, building an innovative China-Africa bridge for AI education and support the large-scale development of digital education across Africa.

Yu Xiran, Founder of Harbin Sumaotong Technology Co., Ltd., pointed out that cross-border trade is currently plagued by pain points such as difficult market access, high entrepreneurial barriers for small and medium-sized enterprises, and low industrial integration. She emphasized that digitalization is the key to solving these issues. Focusing on cross-border trade, her team has built a zero-threshold, lightweight operation digital ecosystem and offered AI-driven e-commerce solutions, achieving outstanding results in Russia and Southeast Asia. She hopes to cooperation with Africa in the future to promote industry-education integration and empower youth entrepreneurship.

With the global expansion of digital payments, how will digital payment platforms in Africa develop? Djim Momar Lo from Senegal presented his solution—the Naboopay Payment Platform. Local merchants lack a centralized platform that integrates various payment methods and cannot effectively utilize data. Naboopay aims to provide secure, unified payment collection services. "China's Alipay and similar platforms have offered us much inspiration, and their advanced experience in AI and hardware technology has also pointed a clear direction for our development," he said.

Mesfin Dessie Mehari from Ethiopia focuses on youth employment. According to data released by the International Labour Organization, the NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training) rate among African youth will reach 21.6% in 2026. Mesfin's TefTef freelancing platform aims to tackle youth unemployment by connecting local African talents with global job opportunities, enabling young Africans to "take global work without leaving home."

Araphat Dimah from Ghana, a young entrepreneur, runs a green mobility and logistics startup providing "last-mile" delivery and intercity emergency transportation services for local towns. Ekundayo Solomon Opeyemi from Nigeria leads a project that converts plastic waste into eco-friendly bricks, and hopes to connect with Chinese technological resources and engineering teams for industrial collaboration. Achaleke Christian Leke, Executive Director of the Nawewe Sports Jamboree Initiative in Cameroon, takes sports events as a core carrier to link local youth in Cameroon with global resources through tournaments, cultural performances, and skills training.

After the project pitches, Li Lei, Member of the Standing Committee of the All-China Youth Federation and Chairman of Shanghai Yishe Public Welfare Cultural Development Center, together with Xing Zheming, specially invited mentor for the Global Youth Development Initiative, provided professional suggestions and practical guidance for all participating project, sparking lively interaction on site.

During the Corporate Virtual Tour segment, Salsabil Hassan, a young representative of CSCEC (China State Construction Engineering Corporation) North Africa Company, served as a "virtual guide," leading participants on an online tour of Egypt’s New Alamein City. From landmark towers overcoming world-class technical difficulties via digital simulation, to artificial lake systems transforming barren salt flats into ecological wonders, the Egyptian young talent growing up within CSCEC, shared touching stories of collaboration between Chinese and Egyptian youth. Hassan noted that through the B&R Youth Development Programme, the project has become an open-air university, changing the lives of many local youth. This cross-regional "cloud dialogue" not only showcased architectural excellence but also conveyed the warmth of people-to-people connections between China and Africa as they build a shared future.

This is the third event of the Global Link for Youth Actions series. The event aims to share best practices for sustainable development, and serves as a regular commumication platform for the Acceleration Week for Global Youth Development Programs, bringing together young pioneers committed to implementing the Global Development Initiative and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The event was hosted by the All-China Youth Federation and organized by China Youth Daily, the KAB National Promotion Office, and Shanghai Yishe Public Welfare Cultural Development Center. It was supported by the Pan-African Youth Union, the Youth and Sport Development Centre of ECOWAS, the Ethiopian Youth Council, the China-Africa Youth Federation, China State Construction Engineering Corporation, Beijing Institute of Technology, and other relevant institutions.