Delta Air Lines supports STEM education in Africa

Delta Air Lines and Junior Achievement (JA) Africa have renewed their partnership to advance business and STEM--science, technology, engineering, and maths-education among young people across the continent.

JA Africa is one of Africa’s largest and most impactful youth-serving NGOs delivering hands-on, immersive learning in work, financial health, entrepreneurship, sustainability, STEM, economics, citizenship, ethics, and more.

As part of its partnership with JA Africa, the airline will present the Delta Social Impact Award at JA Africa’s flagship Company of the Year Competition, taking place in Lagos, Nigeria from December 7-9, 2022.

The event is the culmination of a year’s work for the young participants from Eswatini, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, who have created and run their businesses over the past academic year as part of the JA Company Program.

“As the next generation of business leaders – and global travellers – we work with Junior Achievement across the globe to facilitate education programs for young people,” said Nicolas Ferri, Delta’s vice president Europe, Middle East, Africa, and India. “We have seen the positive impact of this work here in Africa and look forward to continuing our partnership as we support the next generation to meet their full educational potential and move into meaningful employment.”

Over the next 12 months, Delta will also sponsor JA Africa’s STEM innovation camps for 50 school children each in Accra and Dakar – two of the cities from where the airline flies nonstop to the United States.

The one-day camps encourage creativity, critical thinking, teamwork, and problem-solving as young people must put forward solutions to solve a specific business challenge. Colleagues from Delta will be on-hand to support JA Africa’s team and provide coaching and mentoring to the students throughout the day.

Simi Nwogugu, CEO of JA Africa, said: “We are honored to have Delta Air Lines as a long-standing partner. Their sponsorship for JA Africa’s 2022 Company of the Year Competition, through the Social Impact Award, will encourage our young entrepreneurs to use innovative approaches to solving societal issues.

This grant will also support Innovation Camps in Ghana and Senegal which provides a forum for our students to work in groups to address real-life business challenges. These programs give our students the exposure and skilling they need to thrive in the 21st- century workforce.”

Junior Achievement Africa, part of JA Worldwide, is one of Africa’s largest organizations working on youth economic empowerment. Delta supports 32 JA chapters across five continents to teach students about financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship.

JA Africa has a presence in 13 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and collectively reaches more than 300,000 young people and more than 3000 schools every year. JA works in Côte d’Ivoire, Eswatini, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe to secure better lives for the young, their families, and their communities. Delta has been flying to Africa for nearly 16 years, longer than any other U.S. airline, and currently offers nonstop service from four African countries – Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, and South Africa to the United States. It will begin flying from Cape Town in December.