Uganda’s Nabuuma appointed Africa’s representative to Commonwealth Youth Council

Ugandan tech entrepreneur, Shamim Nabuuma Kaliisa, has been appointed as the African representative on the Commonwealth Youth Council (CYC) Executive Committee.

The CYC is a pan-regional youth platform made up of representatives from national youth councils of the 54 states that comprise the Commonwealth of Nations.

“I will focus on getting trainings to scale up our innovations and create links with investors willing to inject money in Africa,” Ms Nabuuma said after taking oath as the new executive seeks to serve until 2023.

The CYC, led by a nine-member executive team, is a coalition of national youth councils and other youth-led civil society and private sector bodies from across the 54 member countries of the Commonwealth.

“I am accountable to the General Assembly as the official link between the CYC and the African continent. I promise to advocate for young people in the Commonwealth since I am
considered an ‘ambassador’ for the Council in Africa,” Ms Nabuuma said during the Commonwealth Youth Forumon the sidelines of the 2022 Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting (CHOGM) in Kigali, Rwanda.

The CYC represents 1.2 billion young people from across Commonwealth countries and is supported by the Commonwealth Secretariat.

 “Promoting innovation and technology is the way to go to reduce on the high rate of youth unemployment in Uganda. That’s why we have joined the cause,” Ms Nabuuma told Monitor.

Among other things, the CYC "aims to further advance the youth development agenda and to ensure a relevant, vibrant, effective, and prosperous Commonwealth in the 21st century and beyond."

The current priority areas of the establishment are: climate change, peace building and countering extremism as well as youth entrepreneurship, health and work.

About Nabuuma

Ms Nabuuma is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the CHIL Artificial Intelligence Lab Group and a co-founder of Solerchil Technologies.

In April 2020, she made it to the prestigious Forbes Magazine cover, for her selection in the publication’s Africa 30 under 30 list.

In 2021, she was selected by the Bloomberg New Economy as one of the extraordinary individuals forming the inaugural class of catalysts which includes 30 other scientists, researchers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers.