Release Date: 08/10/2026
Closing Date: 09/11/2026 at 17:00 Kigali time (CAT / UTC+2)
1. About Smart Africa The Smart Africa Alliance is a bold and innovative commitment from African Heads of State and Government to accelerate sustainable socio-economic development on the continent, with the vision of transforming Africa into a Single Digital Market by 2030. Established through its Manifesto, a collaborative effort among African nations, the African Union, the Economic Commission for Africa, the African Development Bank, the World Bank, the International Telecommunication Union, the private sector, and academic and research institutions, the Alliance was endorsed by African leaders in 2014 and has since garnered the support of 42 African countries representing over one billion people. The Smart Africa Secretariat, headquartered in Kigali, Rwanda, coordinates continental programmes that support digital market integration, policy harmonization, institutional strengthening, and innovation-ecosystem development across Member States, placing information and communications technologies at the core of national and continental socio-economic development. More information: https://smartafrica.org 2. The Smart Africa Markets for All (SAMA) Programme Smart Africa Alliance curated the Smart Africa Markets for All (SAMA), an initiative that brings in nexus between digital innovation – entrepreneurship, digital skills and knowledge, and strengthening policy and regulatory environment for digitization of markets while impacting youth with a particular focus on young women. SAMA Programme is a four-year, multi-country initiative supported by the Mastercard Foundation, running from 2026 through 2029. The Program aims to unlock dignified and fulfilling work opportunities for 35,584 young people, with a target of 70% young women, 5% persons with disabilities, and 5% refugees/internally displaced persons, by improving access to digital markets for economically disadvantaged youth, particularly young women small traders. The Programme is implemented across six countries: Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia. The program responds to systemic challenges in Africa’s informal economy, where approximately 90% of workers are informal and youth, who make up 75% of the population, face interlinked barriers such as limited digital connectivity, financial exclusion, inadequate market access, and digital skills gaps. SAMA builds on Smart Africa’s existing digital initiatives such as SANIA, SADA, SATA, SWG etc and aligns with the organisation’s vision for Africa’s Single Digital Market by 2030 as well as the African Union’s vision, ensuring that program efforts complement broader continental strategies for inclusive digital transformation. 2.1 SAMA Strategic Pillars SAMA is built around three interconnected strategic pillars to drive inclusive growth: a) Entrepreneurship and digital innovation, b) Youth Digital Skills, and c) Institutional Capacity Building. In practice, this translates to: • Accelerating Inclusive Digital Innovation by supporting youth-led tech solutions that reduce market barriers for informal traders. • Youth Digital Skills Development by providing digital, financial and entrepreneurial skills training to young persons, especially young women, to improve their employability and enterprise growth. • Strengthening Institutions and Policy by working with governments and regional bodies to harmonize policies, improve regulatory environments, and build institutional capacity for a unified digital market. 2.2 SAMA Target Personas The Programme’s human-centred design is built around and targets three distinct groups of young persons in Africa: • Small market trader or “Aisha”: As a young woman and small market trader who struggles to make ends meet selling from a tabletop in her local market. She represents the millions of economically disadvantaged youths in informal trade who need access to markets, financial inclusion, and digital tools to improve their livelihood. To benefit from the digitalization happening around her, Aisha needs training to effectively and safely use digital tools, and she needs digital products and services tailored to her realities as a young woman small trader, so that she can move from the periphery to the center of the digital economy. 4 • Social techpreneurs or “Chebet”: A recent university graduate or young social digital entrepreneur who develops inclusive digital solutions responsive to Aisha’s realities. She embodies the entrepreneurial spirit of university educated youth eager to leverage digital innovation for social impact but needs support to succeed. While she may not be as economically disadvantaged as Aisha, she has limited financial, technical, and business support to pursue social entrepreneurship. Chebet’s success is directly connected to Aisha because her enterprise is intended, first and foremost, to develop inclusive digital solutions tailored to the needs and realities of small traders such as Aisha. • Unemployed disadvantaged youth or “Nala”: Nala is a young person from a low-income household who faces difficulty accessing meaningful employment and seeks ICT training to improve her work prospects. She represents the youth seeking to acquire digital skills to improve their employability and access opportunities in the growing digital economy. While she may not be as economically disadvantaged as Aisha, she is from a low- income community and not able to find a job easily. With access to relevant training, certification and employment pathways, she could find better work as tech worker or even upskill her current tech skills to obtain industry-related certification and employment pathways in the emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, cloud computing, data science and coding etc. 2.3 SAMA Programme Interventions Intervention 1: Accelerating Inclusive Digital Innovation: This intervention focuses on supporting young social …
