“Completion of secondary school is vital to helping youth find jobs, start businesses, and bring about change in their communities,” explains Reeta Roy, President and CEO of The MasterCard Foundation. “Our partnerships with Camfed, FAWE, and BRAC prioritize secondary education for young girls. Data from the World Bank show that for girls, one extra year of secondary education increases their earning potential by 15-25 percent. Additionally, staying in school also delays early marriages, and over the long-term, promotes healthier and more economically secure families.”

A UNESCO report says that in Sub-Saharan Africa, the rate at which secondary school enrollment is very low and stands at 43 percent and more than 21.6 million children of lower secondary school age may never spend a single day in school.

Apart from Scholarship Program, MasterCard is also looking for students who have shown leadership potential and a desire to give back to their communities. Through mentoring, leadership development, and service-learning, students gain the skills and competencies needed to become change-makers and ethical leaders and to succeed in the global economy.

BRAC, Camfed, and FAWE will work in partnership with families, communities, educators, and government officials to identify and demonstrate best practices for strong, high quality secondary education institutions.

The youth in Africa now have more opportunities than they used to have a years before as there are many programs that have been formed to support them in the major aspects of their lives. Hopefully it will help in curing the unemployment situation in the continent.