Exclusive Interview: Konstantinos Maragkos – Co-Founder & CEO Youthmakers Hub

Summary

Konstantinos Maragkos explains how Youthmakers Hub grew out of the WE AfriHug initiative and now builds structured bridges between Greece (and Southern Europe) and African entrepreneurial ecosystems. The organisation has delivered 30+ projects across 27 countries, reaching some 12,000 direct beneficiaries, and focuses on youth empowerment, mobility, digital innovation and sustainable social enterprise.

The piece highlights milestone projects such as WE AfriHug, AfriConEU (a Transcontinental Networking Academy), nEU Citizenship, EUth Voices for Social Change and the AU–EU Youth Voices Lab. Maragkos stresses both the enormous potential in Africa’s youthful markets and the complementary strengths of Greek/European actors. He flags sustainability and long-term funding as key challenges for social enterprises and previews the upcoming Africa–Greece Entrepreneurship (AGE) Summit in Athens (17–18 October 2025) themed ‘Future-Proofing Entrepreneurship through Digitalisation’.

Key Points

Youthmakers Hub began from WE AfriHug (2018) and was formally established in 2019 to create lasting Europe–Africa youth links.
The organisation has run 30+ projects in 27 countries and reached over 12,000 direct beneficiaries.
AfriConEU created the first Transcontinental Networking Academy for Digital Innovation Hubs and won multiple awards, showing two-way learning between continents.
Major challenges for social enterprises remain sustainability and over-reliance on short-term grants; long-term mentorship, market access and funding are needed.
Greece can act as a gateway to the EU for African entrepreneurs while African markets offer rapid growth and creative problem-solving approaches for Greek start-ups.
The AGE Summit (Athens, 17–18 Oct 2025) will focus on digitalisation, practical workshops and creating actionable partnerships, not just talks.
Youthmakers Hub is part of the €7.3M AU–EU Youth Voices Lab, handling communication, visibility and the YVL Mobile App.

Why should I read this?

Short version: if you care about Europe–Africa partnerships, youth-led innovation or practical routes to cross-border market entry, this is worth a quick read. Maragkos cuts through the puffery and gives concrete examples, numbers and upcoming opportunities (AGE Summit) that matter for funders, policymakers and founders. We read it so you don’t have to — here’s the useful stuff in one place.

Context and relevance

This interview matters because it outlines a working playbook for linking European expertise and African market potential via youth-centred programmes. It underlines a broader trend: impact-driven entrepreneurship is scaling, but needs structural support to be sustainable. For anyone tracking EU–AU collaborations, impact investment, or routes for SMEs into new markets, the article highlights establised projects, awards and initiatives that validate the model.