Baobab Summit 2025
Baobab Rising: Nurturing the Future Through Africa’s Youth
October 17 - 19, 2025
The Baobab Summit celebrates the leadership, resilience and innovation of young people.
Celebrate youth leadership and excellence
The Baobab Summit brings together the Mastercard Foundation Program Scholars, Alumni, partners, and other Foundation stakeholders to celebrate the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program community. This year, our hybrid celebration takes place in Kenya and online, ensuring everyone can join in.
The theme of this year’s Summit—“Baobab Rising: Nurturing the Future through Africa’s Youth”—captures the resilience and promise of young Africans as leaders of change. It also reflects the Foundation’s commitment to enabling young people to thrive, shaping inclusive education and work systems, and advancing social and economic transformation across the continent.
The 2025 Baobab Summit reaffirms the importance of convening to foster deeper connections, accountability, and shared purpose across the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program community.
With over 57,000 scholarships committed and a growing network of Mastercard Foundation Scholars and Alumni, the Baobab Summit reflects the Foundation’s commitment to nurturing transformative leadership and creating inclusive opportunities for young Africans to thrive.
Join the conversation: #BaobabSummit2025 #BaobabRising
You are invited: Join the virtual experience of the Baobab Summit
Our event may be happening in person but you can join from anywhere in the world
Many of the sessions from this year's Baobab Summit will be livestreamed. Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date about the livestreamed keynotes and how to tune in.
Watch the highlights of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program Baobab Summit 2022.
Watch the highlight video from the Baobab Summit in 2022 in Rwanda, celebrating 10 years of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program
Honouring Scholars' heritage with the annual flag ceremony
Each year, during the Summit's opening ceremonies, we pause to celebrate the global reach of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program with a flag ceremony. Scholars raise their home countries' flags to celebrate their roots and demonstrate the diversity and pride of this global network. We will be livestreaming this energetic and diverse event. Stay tuned to watch this fantastic showcase of diversity coming soon.
The Mastercard Foundation Alumni Network
This supportive youth-led network is a community for alumni to connect to opportunities for engagement and employment and supports ongoing career progression.
Strengthening the community
Baobab Platform
The Baobab platform, developed by Arizona State University in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, brings together a long list of professional development courses in Transformative Leadership, entrepreneurship, hard and soft skills for the workforce.
