Africa is not just rising it is racing toward the future. With a projected population of 2.5 billion by 2050, a median age under 20, and the fastest-growing cities on the planet, Africa is the world's most youthful, urbanizing, and digitally connected frontier. By 2035, the continent will have the largest working-age population in the world. This shift presents an unprecedented opportunity: a continent rich in ideas, energy, and creativity where the next generation of entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists, and designers will build the solutions of tomorrow. Yes, Africa faces development challenges from energy access and climate resilience to education gaps and food insecurity. But these are exactly the kinds of problems that entrepreneurs are born to solve. And nowhere in the world today is the opportunity to create meaningful, scalable, impact-driven startups greater than in Africa.

Across climate, agriculture, education, finance, and health, African entrepreneurs are building ventures that respond to real needs often leapfrogging legacy systems and inventing new markets from the ground up. For forward-looking universities training the next generation of entrepreneurs, designers, and changemakers, Africa represents not just a study destination but a co-creation platform.

SPARK Africa is the bridge It brings the innovation assets of Africa its people, its problems, its energy, and its growing infrastructure together with the entrepreneurial ambitions of global students to build real ventures, address real needs, and shape real futures. The Summer Programme for Actionable Research & Knowledge in Africa (SPARK Africa) is a 3-month global innovation residency hosted in University Innovation Pods (UniPods) across Africa high-tech, interdisciplinary makerspaces supported by UNDP’s timbuktoo initiative.