Akinwumi Adesina
Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), says young Africans do not need empowerment schemes but capital to fund their ideas.
Speaking on Thursday during an interview on Channels Television, Adesina said Africa’s youth represent a valuable resource that must be harnessed for economic growth through substantial investment in human capital development and financing.
“Young people don’t need freebies; they don’t need people saying: ‘I just want to give you an empowerment programmes’”, he said.
“They have skills, they have knowledge, they have entrepreneurship capacity, they want to turn their ideas into great businesses.
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“What young people need is not those empowerment programmes; they need capital, they need you to put your money at risk on their behalf.”
Adesina decried the migration phenomenon known as ‘Japa’ in Nigeria, saying that it is a “big loss” for Nigeria and the African continent.
He warned that Africa should not turn what should be its demographic asset into “somebody else’s problem” due to the inability to believe in young people and invest in their ideas for continental prosperity.
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“In the case of young people and the japa syndrome, it’s a big loss for us. We have over 465 million young people between the ages of 15 and 35,” he said.
“I do not believe that the future of our young people lies in Europe; it doesn’t lie in America, it doesn’t lie in Canada, Japan or China; it should lie in Africa growing well, growing robustly and able to create quality jobs for our young people.”
Adesina stated that Africa’s youth population should not be seen as a challenge, citing that the large populations of India and China have not posed problems for those countries.
“It is what you do with your population; how you skill them up,” he added.
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The AfDB president explained that if Africa’s youth are equipped with skills, access to quality jobs, and social protection, it could lead to prosperity for the continent.
