How Bunmi Banjo Is Helping African Youth Become Employable Through Digital Skills For Africa Program

The desire to tackle the increasing rates of unemployment and create economic opportunities for Africans led Bunmi Banjo to Google in 2012.

As Google’s Brand and Reputation Manager, Bunmi, through DIGITAL SKILLS FOR AFRICA PROGRAM launched in April last year has trained a million youths in sub-Saharan African.

In a chat with Torera Idowu for CNN, Bunmi said the program, a free crash course in digital marketing gives participants a 70% chance of becoming more employable.

The course is taught in classrooms, online and offline for areas with limited Internet access and it happens in over 27 countries.

Bunmi explains that the program is already yielding positive results and so, Google would be training another one million African youths and courses would be taken in local languages including Hausa and Swahili.

 

SHE SAID,

67% of the people we have trained have said they have either gotten a job or they feel better prepared for jobs because of the training. If only a few million people are impacted by 67% that is significant.

Every aspect of my job is about helping people get value out of the web. Young people [in Africa] are ingenious and all they need is a little support to connect to the tools they need to improve their future.

It’s not every time you get to do something where you get to meet the beneficiaries of the work you do. It’s the most rewarding feeling to the point that the work you do and the impact it’s having at the level of the individual.

Read full profile on CNN