 మాల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల్ల Ba Bao Summit 2022 in Rwanda which is a decade of impact across the world. I couldn't say no. You know why? Because it was a chance for me to go back to Rwanda. Old Kindly, the aim of this foundation aligns with the work that I do. I mean changing and imparting lives and also empowering young people in Africa through founding. If I said founding MasterCard foundation, if you have a business idea, they come through for you to find this so that your dream will actually come to pass. When you want to go to invest the MasterCard foundation also comes through for you. And I was so amazed to see the number of lives that this foundation has touched across Africa and I had to put some light on it. But before I do that, let me tell you a bit of what happened at the summit. At the summit, the scholars, the aluminal and the partners came together to connect. We create, share, learn and reflect. I have to share this incredible story with you all. But do me a favor, like this video, subscribe and be part of this awesome channel. And you know what you need to do for me? Be a farmer today. It's my first time planting onions. I've been enjoying onions all my life. And it's a pity that... When you're eating them, you'll know. Please. When you harvest them, just give it to me. I just want this one. I want people to know that this is how I planted this one. Farming for educated people. Which part of Africa did you grow up from? They are in Rwanda. In Rwanda? Yeah. So in Rwanda educated people do farming? Yes, they do. I was born here. Farming is for the poor. Then if you keep that mindset, poverty and hunger, we keep facing poverty and hunger. Wow. My name is Wodemaya. The one and only annoying village boy from Ghana who is an agenda to change the negative narrative of Africa. And I'm here because I heard your story from Mastercard Foundation. And that's why I'm here today. Tell me who you are and what do you do? Thank you so much. My name is Norman. And I'm the founder of Afri Farmers' Market and also Yab. Afri Farmers' Market we're trying to help rural farmers accessible market for their produce without moving kilometers and kilometers carrying the fresh produce on the head but selling on the farm at a fair price. On the Yab, we try at Yab. It's an NGO. We're trying to engage young people to love agriculture, to look at the opportunities and tap the opportunities in agriculture and how they can overcome unemployment. You know, as we young people, anything that is not sexy, we are not interested in it. Even when you want to marry a woman, you need to make sure the woman is sexy. So that's why most of us don't like agriculture. I mean, how are you making agriculture so sexy for young Africans to involve themselves in it? What I'm doing is to show them that agriculture is not holding the whole and spending how many hours in the farm. But you can do different things. This guy is just insulting me. Anyway, it's all right. But there are more opportunities. Like maybe young people don't know adding value growing in a greenhouse like this where you don't even actually need to depend on rain season. Like it's more like this is actually, you don't even have going the village. You can have this one in the city and grow food and feed the future. And also there's more value addition. There's logistics, there's marketing. There's a lot of things that are opportunities that are in agriculture for young people. You're born in Rwanda? I was actually born in Uganda. Uganda? Raised in Rwanda? Yes. Wow. And you lived here all your life? Yeah, yeah. You never left the country to live abroad? I went for my studies, for my bachelor's and master's. Which countries did you go to? For my bachelor's, I went to Costa Rica at Atty University with MasterCard Foundation of Scholarship. And then for my master's, I went to China and Chingwe University with Schwarzman Scholars Program. Oh, you speak Chinese? Yes, I do. Ni hao. Ni hao ma. You had opportunity to stay abroad? Yes. And after school, you also had opportunity to live in the country? Why did you come back? I mean I have so many young Africans when they ask me, is this brother okay? I mean abroad is the future, the west is the future, why you got opportunity and decided to come back home? Well, when I reached abroad, I looked at how actually looking at the opportunities which are there, and the skills I have gained. And I hope that how can I bring back the skills? How can I give back to my community? How can I come bring the skills and support? The people and the challenges that we are facing, mostly which is an improvement among young people, which is hunger and poverty in rural communities. And I decided to bring back the skills so that I can give an impact to the community where I come from. Does that mean that personally you don't have a farm? No, for me I don't have a farm. But I support other young people to have farms. How do you support other young people to have a farm? First of all, we teach them how to start farming, like doing it in a professional way as a business. We give them like a training, like a work capacity building program. And then from there we give them access to finance, like by input, like fertilizer, like seeds. And then they can have the investment starting. And then after they harvest and then where Afri farmers comes in, using technology, said their produce are the farm. You're actually doing agriculture in a different way. Isn't lucrative what you're doing? Yeah, it is creative. And that's why the question he asked me is on agriculture, why opportunities in agriculture are those? That's also an opportunity. I'm a farmer but I don't have the whole to go in the farm. But I'm a farmer and I'm supporting others. So if they could be more in other country, in other community, in another community, that's how. How many people are you supporting right now? Right now more than 5,000 local farmers in Rwanda. 5,000 local farmers? Do you fund them too? Through different ways, like those in groups, we give them inputs and trainings. What kind of inputs are you talking about? The farm inputs like fertilizers, improved seeds, pest sides. So they get them on credit and after they harvest, then they can pay back the credit. So that money can go back to support other new farmers. That's impressive man. So with the 5,000 local farmers that you have, what will you say, like in terms of acres, have you ever calculated it? How many acres of land you collect? So I'm like in hectares, I might be like this where we are right now, it's more than 5 hectares. And actually the good thing, why we actually in this farm, this is the group we started with in 2020. There is a group of young people, they were thought of them. We asked them from the local leaders and they were unemployed in the community. And we gave them a smaller piece of land here to start with, give them the inputs at the beginning, they started growing and learning how to grow in a sustainable way. And from there within the period of 3 years, they have been able to raise the income to build their own greenhouses. So starting with an investment of, I remember we started with only 300 dollars. But now they are investing more than almost 10 million per 3 months within the season of 3 months here in this land. A genius man. Do you know that something good about farming? Do you know like here, only here, like the small space we have right now, this one for onions? The investment was not more than 50 dollars. But they are expecting to get more than 200 dollars. It's just within this small piece of land. Small piece of land. That's real creative business. And how long is this going to take to be harvested? Around 4-5 months. What do you guys get water from? It's here, but there is a water here running. But as you can see up there, we are putting irrigation system. You see that going, so that will be the water reservoir on top. Then it will move by gravity. Then here will be for irrigation. But we have other sources of irrigation. They can see there's a tank there. So set up everything. That irrigation is for the greenhouse. Those days they never knew anything about greenhouse. Yeah. So you told them. Yes, yes. And they both even start building their own. So this is it. Now they can have during the dry season. They don't want to now depend on the dry season. Tell me, how was life when you were growing up? I grew up right in the similar conditions. We actually had to drop out of school at one point. To make sure I had to find a way of how I can get money, raise money, take back to school. And I think education has saved my life. Has put opportunities in. And then I want to use those opportunities also to give back. I know there will be somebody, a young person like me going through what I was going through when I was growing up. And how can I motivate him? And the only way I can give back is to share the skills and share the knowledge and say, hey, you can make it. I was here and I've been able to bridge this side and you can do it. And these are the resources. I would not. So you mean it's possible to make it in Africa? Oh, actually for me, I believe it's in Africa. That's why you can make it possible. If I now I go in the US, what would I do? Apart from maybe get a job and work there. I can't be in what innovation would I bring? But here it's why we need more innovations as you can still right now. These are the opportunities. Now we are using our hands and opportunities so you can use the machine to do this. Instead of having 10 or 15 people doing this, just one person do those opportunities. Are you looking forward for a partnership so that they can improve in terms of the equipment that you use? Yes, yes, of course. Yo, you know, let's do this, man. I think this young man is doing something creative that I think he needs our support. If you're a business partner, a businessman out there, you really want to partner with him. Feel free. I'm going to put his email in the description box. If you're from Rwanda, you have the resources to help them expand the farm. Just let me know, please. Because I think people like him, I mean they got the vision, they got the ideas, but sometimes funding is not there, right? Will you say that that is the main challenge facing your farm? Yes, yes. Like others are telling people like, hey, I mean agriculture, like agriculture, are you able to, if I invest in my money, can I get it back? That's the big, big challenge. But we want to change that narrative that yes, we can invest in agriculture. And this is the future. Agriculture is the backbone of a continent. So if you are not taking care of the backbone of the continent, what else can we, what should we be working on? And I encourage young people, please, please, please, take agriculture as the best solution, as the best option for you to generate income. Instead of working for, you know, think of investing in agriculture. Think, just try and see how it goes. After school, did you get a job? Yes, I got a job in California, but I had to leave it. It's that common. Dude, are you kidding me? Yes, yes, yes. You got a job in California and decided to let it go. Yeah. Why? I just wanted to really follow my passion. I want, I felt like the time I'll be spending there working in the company, which I had, then I was like, if I spend that time, I can work on my own things that I'm more passionate about and I can impact more people, like you can see. So for you, it's all about impact. Let me tell you something. I feel like life is not about income, because if you have a passion for something, you will definitely make an impact. And when you make an impact, that is when you make an income. Yeah. There is, there's someone who told me like, if you want to be successful, focus on people. And the solution I'm trying to do and because they know if they are successful, if they can grow these onions, they can generate some income, they sustain their, they meet their daily basic needs and also we can grow up the community. I want to know is the current government of Rwanda supporting young farmers, any program to support young farmers? Yeah, there are many, there's called Riyadh that is supporting young people. There are even some funds that are supporting young people in agriculture. There are many millions of opportunities for them, but the question is, are young people ready to grab those opportunities? Are you ready to grab those opportunities? And all those opportunities are for Rwandans or young Africans? Yeah, across, of course, across the continent. I know there are others, maybe difference, but right now with the experience I have which is in Rwanda, whether they are engaging young people, like even the forum for young people in agriculture and everything. Like right now what I was telling you, for this land where we are right now, it's a land of five hectares for a group of 30 members in a cooperative. And this land, actually they don't rent this land. This land was given them by the government. Wow, the local leaders. Yeah, they gave them to use it to grow their crops. And for us what we did is to give them the skills how to utilize this land. So if there's opportunity like this and there are more opportunities across the continent, so young people should. So you said when they harvest, they bring it to you, right? We come here to pick. You come here to pick? Yeah, so I think when you're coming you saw a truck and even actually from here you're going to say there is another way the other side but the final part we're going to visit. You see how they collect. But normally after harvesting now it's a planting season. The truck comes here. They measure after measuring. We pay them at the farm. But before that they have also another but it was like a group representative how we're using the offline platform the ESS decode send the harvest. Say hey I'm farmer so and so we're here in this place and we have this harvest that will be harvested in the next two days three days. Then for us we'll coordinate the pick up the pick up time. I've seen that they are just cultivating in here. Is there any way they are harvesting at the moment? Yeah, after here we're going to see the harvest. Can we go check it out? Yep. So where are we right now? This is the harvest collection center. So you can see the houses that garden some of them at this side others at the other side. So here they come bring and so they sell from here instead. Yeah. Before starting working with them they had to work like then almost all the way to Kigadi which is more than 20 kilometers from here and cutting that fresh produce on the head. But now they are selling from here. If I may understand what you really do it's more like a broker between the farmers and the consumers. Yeah it's like connecting have that linkage because we have now from here for them they send their harvest we come and pick it then we use the e-commerce platform people just order that fresh produce there and we deliver it to their doorstep. You know what you've done? You see without you probably this my spot in a few days. Yeah. Actually before they used to lose up to 40 percent of their produce. On the farm. Yeah. Are they weighing it? Yeah they weigh and so we... Yeah. 22 Kg. This is 20... No wait don't add your hand. You can't shit to them man. So this is so it's 24 eh? It's 24 eh? I was trying to help you. I put it down with me then. Yeah. So so which means that you buy according to the Kg. Yes yes I put it in the Kg. Deito. This is Kasaba. Kasaba? You know since there is Kasaba here which means I can stay in this country. You know why? Because in my country I eat this. You know for sure. Yeah yeah I know for sure. Yeah we use you guys have plantain right? Yes eh you know not the machete we have here. See I'm not coming back to Ghana man. They have Kasaba, they have plantain, they have tomatoes. You have Filipini? Yeah we do. Filipini? Yes. Ha! Can make you have kaku? Kaku what is that? They don't have kaku. Maybe we have but I don't know. Plantain, plantain, plantain. Yeah so now they're going to pack it into the cart? Yeah yeah then I'm going packing here then where they measure we pay them then. Pay them right here. Yeah. Wow. So everybody will be a billionaire today. This will be. Hi. Okay. Can I talk for you? Yes yes. No the system that he brought because it actually added value to your produce in here. Eh like she said she's saying like the system really helps them very well. If it wasn't them they have to work up at 3 a.m. to go to the market so they can reach their early morning and going and coming back they lose a lot and so it's so painful. It's a lot of work for them. Do they used to lose a lot of their produce? It's a lot of work for them. Where are you? Nobody in here will show no. I'm saying before that they have the she can quote now imagine she has already invested five and she can only carry one or two. Oh she has to take the whole family, the dad and the mom to go to the market and no one is even there and because even by the time they work with this and by the time they reach there even the quality will have reduced. Is it now profitable for you? Now it is more profitable because there is no money wasted she doesn't waste her time to go to the farm to work all that distance and selling here gives her time also to do other business. What will you say to him? She's very very grateful for the opportunity they no longer have that pain of going to the market losing their produce and even apart from that even the skills they gain that the ones will give them to help them to transform and think about this one as both of them. Murakuzi I added one more yeah just for your hardware. When you hear the name Africa what comes into your mind? The possibilities the opportunities that have not been utilized yet. And why do you think we've no utilized opportunities that we have on the continent? First of all there are two like the name they have shaped Africa to be you know when you think of Africa poverty all those but we don't talk about opportunities we don't talk about the beautiful nature that we have and in the type of opportunities that are there that we can look into and young people can engage in and develop our continent. Do you believe Africa runs the world? Of course 100 percent. If we run the world what do you think is the major problem of the continent? The problem first of all is that name they have shaped us the Africa to be you know and the other thing is do we have more strategic leaders? We have leaders but we need more leaders in different parts of the continent that are more strategic that are more developing ideas that help the people leaders of the people because I do everything stands and falls on leadership so if you have the right leaders like in Rwanda if you could have another more president in another country who is like our president that would be really perfect. It seems you are so proud of your president. Yes I am. How proud are you about your president? Tell me. Maybe 200 percent out of 100. Tell me what he has done that makes you feel so proud of him. I want to take back a little bit like during the 1994 run the genocide against Tutsi if we looked at the Rwanda at that time and look at the Rwanda we have right now if it wasn't our president if it wasn't our leader wouldn't be the country now that is on top so bringing all like now you can see our people working together and all those the unity the transformation the level of development is because we had a vision leader if it wasn't him I don't know I don't think we would be here where we are and that's why me getting the opportunity to study and all that and that's why it motivates me to come and so pray my role pray my path because I know whatever idea I have I'm going to do is going to work out if it wasn't that then I would have maybe stay there like I'm not coming because I never idea we want to work out but right now it's working out because of the good governance there's so many youths living in the diaspora if you have a message for them what will that message be come back invest in your communities they should come and bring those knowledge the skills the resources they have to invest in their countries as a Rwandan I think you just praised your president what do you think the people of Rwanda can do to help the vision of the current leader oh there is always where we want to go there is a where the direction we are going and there is the why we are doing that and why we want to go there so the president is that the giving us that direction but the why it's the people why we should do that one so I think like every Rwandan should embark on the vision and the ideas and work if you are a government official you are working for that make sure you work the maximum deliver to the people so if you have a leader vision leader and is doing everything but the system down the people are not working so hard it will be hard to reach that development it will be hard to reach that vision but if you work together the everyone and everyone invest in and everyone whatever opportunities available whatever challenge you are seeing and turn into a possibility we can go there what are the kind of opportunities do you think they have in Rwanda that other Africans can come and invest in here of course there is agriculture there is digito skills that we can come in and there are more natural resources that we have we have a lot a lot of opportunities that people can come and invest in and work and even expand I think Rwanda should be a startup nation for the African continent that's what I'm thinking was farming your passion or just come along the way it was my passion because that's what I actually studied at my undergraduate and I wanted to get this yeah that was being my passion if it wasn't passion I do believe that passion drives the purpose so if it wasn't passion I wouldn't be doing this