Shaqodoon's Mustafa Othman on the State of Somalia & Somaliland's Entrepreneurship Support Ecosystem

Published: Dec. 19, 2018, 6:17 a.m.

b'In this podcast, Andile Masuku chats with Mustafa Othman. Mustafa is the Somali Co-founder and Communications and Technology Manager of an organisation called Shaqodoon which operates in Somalia and Somaliland. Shaqodoon, which translated to English means \\u201cjob seeker\\u201d, was born out of a USAID funded youth empowerment project called the Somali Youth Livelihoods Program, which was supported by the Education Development Center (EDC).\\n\\nShaqodoon serves up programmes designed to help unemployed and out-of-school youth aged between 15 and 24 years acquire marketable work and life skills. Many of these initiatives are delivered thanks to strong partnerships the organisation has struck with local communities, government, international NGOs and the indigenous private sector. \\n\\nMustafa studied for a Computer Science degree at the University of Westminster and has gained a wealth of hands-on management experience while working in the youth employment, entrepreneurship and education space in Somalia and Somaliland.\\n\\nListen in for insight into the state of the region\\u2019s growing entrepreneurship support ecosystem and to get a sense of what interventions are working and why.\\n\\nEditorial Disclaimer:\\nSPARK (spark-online.org) is the presenting sponsor of this podcast, which is part of an African Tech Roundup miniseries (bit.ly/FragileStatesMiniseries) focused on inclusive economic progress being made in vulnerable states.\\n\\nAfrican Tech Roundup retains full editorial control over all published content. Opinions expressed by the host, Andile Masuku, and his guests, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the presenting sponsor, SPARK.\\n\\nThis podcast series was taped at the fringes of SPARK\\u2019s 6th annual IGNITE Conference (bit.ly/IGNITE2018Roundup) - a premier gathering of refugees, entrepreneurs, educators, private sector actors, government leaders, academics and NGOs.\\n\\nImage credit: Shaqodoon'