Scaling Up: Indigenous Knowledge and Entrepreneurship Growth in micro-Enterprises for the Youth in Africa September 30, 2025 Time: 10:00-12:00PM EST Speakers: Dr. Lauri Eliot and Dr. Nwakego Eyisi Chairperson: Professor Samuel Ojo Oloruntoba Background and Rationale: Across Africa, indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) have long served as the foundation for resilience, innovation, and socio-economic survival. From traditional medicine and craft industries to food systems and local environmental management, indigenous knowledge is deeply rooted in the wisdom, culture and norms of the people. It is rooted in community life and offers tremendous untapped potential for entrepreneurship and inclusive economic growth. Africa’s youth—who make up over 60% of the continent’s population face the perennial urgent challenges around unemployment, underemployment, and limited access to dignified economic opportunities. In this webinar, speakers will explore how the intersection of indigenous knowledge and entrepreneurship offers a promising pathway for business development, youth empowerment, and sustainable livelihoods, especially when scaled and supported with enabling policies, finance, and innovation ecosystems. This webinar is organized by Africa Indigenous Knowledge Research Network in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation. It aims to foster dialogue, share insights, and showcase success stories and innovations that demonstrate how youth in Africa are transforming indigenous knowledge into scalable business ventures. It also seeks to examine how academic institutions, policymakers, private sector actors, and development organizations can collaborate to amplify these efforts and create an ecosystem for sustainable indigenous entrepreneurship. Objectives: To explore how indigenous knowledge can be leveraged as a driver for youth entrepreneurship and business growth in Africa. To show how a shift in mindset can help to scale up micro-enterprises by applying indigenous knowledge in Africa To showcase scalable business models rooted in indigenous knowledge systems. To identify challenges and opportunities in scaling youth-led indigenous businesses. To build networks and foster collaboration among researchers, entrepreneurs, development partners, and institutions. To contribute to the discourse on decolonizing entrepreneurship and promoting African-centered innovation strategies. Expected Outcomes: Enhanced understanding of the value of indigenous knowledge in entrepreneurship and youth-led business growth. Identification of strategies for scaling up indigenous knowledge-based enterprises. Recommendations for policy, funding, and academic support mechanisms to promote indigenous entrepreneurship. Participation: Please register here: https://carleton-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/2RBj-1w0SjW0XITIZJVeXw Speakers Bio: Dr. Lauri Elliott has over 35 years of experience in strategy, innovation, organizational development, change management, human performance technology, business process reengineering, instructional design, large-scale system change, and technology. In addition, Lauri has over 22 years of in-depth business and strategy experience in developing markets, particularly Africa. As Chief Enterprising Officer of Globalstratos, Lauri assists small/start-up to large companies to develop strategies and new projects/new ventures, focusing on early-stage development and pre-transaction activities in frontier and emerging markets. Lauri leads a team that develops methodologies for managing and developing partnerships, designing and deploying early-stage projects/ventures, project preparation, and structuring organizations and systems to minimize risk and maximize opportunities while building sustainable enterprises. Lauri has developed, coordinated, and facilitated bi-lateral partnerships between the US and African institutions. She is the author of six books, including Redefining Business in the New Africa (2011) and Grow Rich in the New Africa (2012). She is also a frequent commentator on ETV South Africa and has been interviewed or quoted by other media outlets like SABC and Fox News. Dr. Eyisi Nwakego Dr. Nwakego Eyisi is a development economist. She obtained her doctorate from the University of Nigeria. Nwakego's research spotlights the association between early-stage venture development and economic growth in emerging markets. Her study straddles the fields of strategic management and development economics. She has experience in new venture creation, small firm finance, and stakeholder (entrepreneurial) ecosystem development in Africa, where she spent several years researching and supporting historically excluded, colonized, and marginalized entrepreneurs. Nwakego has presented at international trade and development finance conferences. She is currently researching formal and alternative (indigenous ecosystems) models for developing entrepreneurship in emerging markets – Telfer School of Management. She has published papers in the Journal of the Knowledge Economy. She is an associate editor with Springer Nature. Nwakego has a master’s degree in applied economics from Eastern Michigan University. She is a member of the International Development Economic Associates (IDEAs) as well as the Africa Indigenous Knowledge Research Network (AIKRN). Her aim is that her research influences entrepreneurship policy.
