The Vice President of the Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, Finda Koroma, has called for the creation of opportunities for youths to leverage Africa’s demographic divides.
Koroma gave the submission at the Junior Chamber International (JCI) Nigeria Senate Association 11th Leadership Excellence for National Development (LEND) Webinar Series.
Speaking on ‘Building Emerging Leaders for Africa and the Middle East,’ Koroma said the youths formed a critical part of the economic discourse in Africa, adding that statistics showed that the continent is endowed with sufficient human resources to develop its economies.
She lamented that African youths are faced with unemployment and underemployment, which limit their ability to realise their potentials, thereby exposing them to vices such as crime, violence, extremism and banditry.
Koroma said small and medium enterprise (SME) provided the continent with a powerful tool to address youth unemployment, adding that a youth-led enterprise can grow economies and create job opportunities.
She said, required significant investment in education, vocational skills, health, infrastructure as well as information and communication technology (ICT) would turn the human resources into a capable workforce that could turn the wheels of the continent’s development.
The time has come that all hands must be put on deck through the promotion of education and skills training as well as social confidence in our youths through unlimited access to investment and capital for their entrepreneurship development,”
The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Simbi Wabote, said the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) opened up a new horizon for the continent in the next few decades, adding that the NCDMB was putting a strategy in place to get more entrepreneurs to deepen local content practice in Nigeria’s oil.
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