Living Entrepreneurship Blog / Babson Entrepreneurs

An exploration of entrepreneurship education in Africa

On April 22nd, Akeem Allen ’17 of CREED and Marvin Tarawally ’17 of Students Making a Real Transformation (SMART) Liberia (formerly Student Reform Initiative) joined members of the Butler Venture Accelerator on their experience of spreading Entrepreneurship spirit in Africa. CREED was established in November of 2014 to provide education to broader education in Mamelodi Township in South Africa. The concept of SMART Liberia started in 2011 and they focus on developing innovative youthful solutions to empower high school students to be change makers.

Allen introduced CREED’s first holiday program held at the University of Pretoria Mamelodi campus in January 2015. There were twenty-six 11th grade students from eleven different schools going through a week-and-a-half intensive entrepreneurial education experience. At the end of the program, the students produced twenty business plans. After the CREED program, the students showed 38% increase in entrepreneurial understanding and 12% increase in startup confidence.

Tarawally introduced SMART Liberia’s school improvement project. Through the project, 139 high school students from 20+ high schools across at Monrovia, Iberia were trained with entrepreneurial leadership skills. 14 student based initiatives were created and they were provided $2,500 seed fund through donor and institutions such as the British Council and International Bank (Liberia) Limited. 100% of the participants felt empowered after the project.

Under the mission to produce change makers across Africa, both Allen and Tarawally have successfully worked on their projects to spread entrepreneurial education and continue to make an impact on young people.