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Turning kids into entrepreneurs

Children in Uganda are running their own businesses thanks to special classes in school, and the people behind the project hope it will help reduce unemployment among young people

Uganda has a very young population – the median age is 16 and young people find it hard to get a job. So now children are being taught how to run their own businesses before they leave school. They learn about profit and loss, how to get investment, leadership and practical skills, such as making bags and charcoal briquettes for the communities where they live.

Uganda has a reputation as an entrepreneurial country but, as in most places, lots of its start-ups do not last. The organisation behind these lessons, Educate!, hopes that its programme will give children everything they need to make their businesses a success when they leave school. Now the scheme has also spread to Kenya and Rwanda.

Reporter: Reha Kansara

(Photo: Young school boy. Credit: BBC)

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