Youth-Driven and Youth-Centred Development – Africa’s Future

 

Ishmael Yamson & Associates Business Roundtable 2021

Theme: Youth-Driven and Youth-Centred Development – Africa’s Future

 

"Africa must stop being a museum of poverty. Its people are determined to reverse this trend. The future of young Africans is not in Europe, their destiny is not to end their lives in the Mediterranean Sea,” Africa Development Bank President, Akinwunmi Adesina

 

Africa is in crisis.

 

The continent suffers from a leadership deficit compounded over some sixty years of its post-colonial history. In that time, there has been a massive build-up of deficits in infrastructure, in technology, public sector systems, market access, productivity in both the public sector and private sector and opportunities for the growth and development of African enterprise and African citizens.  Since the Arab spring erupted in North Africa, there has been a momentum across the entire region for the inclusion of young people in a fairer socio-economic framework that supports and promotes the rights of young people to access economic opportunities, be part of economic decision-making and creates room for the innovations and business ideas of young people to thrive in a growing economy.

 

Without a doubt, African enterprise in financial services, power and tourism have done very well in pockets such as Nigeria, South Africa, Eastern Africa and in a majority of African countries, the telecom sector has proven to be a catalyst in economic development that benefits the youth.  But this is not enough. 

 

Africa is exporting its future in droves.

 

Consequently, Africa is losing its young people – both unskilled and professionals, who year after year, are willing to undertake the perilous journey to greener pastures in their thousands in the developed economies of Asia, Europe and North America in search of the 'better life'. The global community is as much frustrated with the lack of resolutions to the problems of Africa, as it is indignant about the migration of young Africans.  What drives this exodus, is the uncertainty of their future if they stay in Africa and the guarantee of poverty if they do not move. The future of the continent's economy and Africa’s place in the emerging Fourth Industrial Revolution are both at stake. 

 

The need for new thinking, new ideas and innovation has seldom been greater.

 

The nature of the challenges that Africa faces require a “new kind” of responsiveness.  The African Union, through its African Youth Charter, signed in 2006 in Banjul, the Gambia, enshrined the rights, duties, and freedoms of African youth to ensure the constructive involvement of youth in the development agenda of Africa and their effective participation in decision-making processes towards the development of the continent.

 The Youth is to “become the custodians of their own development.”

 

The youth account for 60 percent of all unemployed Africans.  They are the current and future workforce of the region, with about 11 million young people expected to enter the labour market or start running their own businesses each year for the next decade.   While there has been growth in formal sector jobs in some countries, most young people are likely to work in informal sector jobs such as household enterprises or in family-run firms.   To transform their economies in today’s borderless economy and global talent market, African countries will require knowledge-driven institutions and the untapped advantage of well-educated and trained youths who represent Africa’s vast potential to become the forerunners for innovation and disruptive change. 

 

Young people must take centre-stage.

 

Africa’s youth will be the implementers of the agenda for economic transformation. Therefore they must set the direction and define what investments are required to drive African development over the next decade in new sustainable industrial development, improved economic productivity and the accelerated creation and equitable distribution of wealth. 

 Shifting Young Africans to the Centre

Current leaders of African states and major enterprises must extend credible invitations to the youth of Africa to actively participate in defining, reimagining solutions and implementing policy to resolve Africa’s most pressing challenges that will evenly deliver ground-breaking development and wealth across the continent.