Infrastructure key to employment
Failure to effectively deal with deepening unemployment among Africa's growing youth population could have catastrophic effects.
African Union representative Cheikh Bedda has warned that sky-high youth unemployment on the continent can seriously harm economic gains.
“Failure to effectively deal with deepening unemployment among Africa's growing youth population could seriously erode the economic gains achieved across the continent in recent years,” Bedda, the director of the African Union Commission's (AUC) infrastructure and energy department, said in Swakopmund this week.
He was speaking at a meeting of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (Pida).
Bedda said Africa had one of the fastest growing youth demographics in the world, which could be seen as an asset for change, progress and dynamism.
“Today's generation of people in Africa is the largest the world has ever known. About half of Africa's population of 1.1 billion is under the age of 25,” he explained.
Bedda said the challenge of creating enough jobs and opportunities for the large African youth population entering the labour market was a major challenge faced by the continent.
In line with the objectives of Pida, Bedda said the benefits of a regionally integrated approach to infrastructure development were to make possible the formation of large competitive markets instead of “small, fragmented and inefficient ones, and to lower costs across production sectors so as to stimulate industrialisation and growth and consequently enabling job creation.”
The Pida event focused on the best ways to develop infrastructure in Africa in order to grow economies and to create jobs.
Bedda urged public decision-makers and private-sector management to “actively undertake training and skills acquisition in infrastructure development, particularly in building roads, rail systems, power generation, power transitions systems and ICT connectivity” to help young Africans to be prepared for the job market brought to life by programmes such as Pida. Speaking at a panel discussion at the Pida event, Shem Simuyemba from the African Development Bank urged countries to use multimillion-dollar infrastructural projects as opportunities to grow local economies for the benefit of local communities in terms of job creation and capacity building.
“In most cases when such projects are established, we tend to import experts and materials from abroad, such as China. These services are very expensive and take all the money out of the continent,” Simuyemba said.
He urged countries to source materials and experts and other services from within their own borders or, failing that, other African states. The minister of works and transport, Alpheus !Naruseb, who attended the meeting, said economic emancipation was a key element of unity and peace in Africa. He said weak economies struggled to maintain peace.
“Only with economic freedom are we able to sustain reconciliation and coexistence in Africa,” he said.
- Additional reporting by Nampa
JANA-MARI SMITH
“Failure to effectively deal with deepening unemployment among Africa's growing youth population could seriously erode the economic gains achieved across the continent in recent years,” Bedda, the director of the African Union Commission's (AUC) infrastructure and energy department, said in Swakopmund this week.
He was speaking at a meeting of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (Pida).
Bedda said Africa had one of the fastest growing youth demographics in the world, which could be seen as an asset for change, progress and dynamism.
“Today's generation of people in Africa is the largest the world has ever known. About half of Africa's population of 1.1 billion is under the age of 25,” he explained.
Bedda said the challenge of creating enough jobs and opportunities for the large African youth population entering the labour market was a major challenge faced by the continent.
In line with the objectives of Pida, Bedda said the benefits of a regionally integrated approach to infrastructure development were to make possible the formation of large competitive markets instead of “small, fragmented and inefficient ones, and to lower costs across production sectors so as to stimulate industrialisation and growth and consequently enabling job creation.”
The Pida event focused on the best ways to develop infrastructure in Africa in order to grow economies and to create jobs.
Bedda urged public decision-makers and private-sector management to “actively undertake training and skills acquisition in infrastructure development, particularly in building roads, rail systems, power generation, power transitions systems and ICT connectivity” to help young Africans to be prepared for the job market brought to life by programmes such as Pida. Speaking at a panel discussion at the Pida event, Shem Simuyemba from the African Development Bank urged countries to use multimillion-dollar infrastructural projects as opportunities to grow local economies for the benefit of local communities in terms of job creation and capacity building.
“In most cases when such projects are established, we tend to import experts and materials from abroad, such as China. These services are very expensive and take all the money out of the continent,” Simuyemba said.
He urged countries to source materials and experts and other services from within their own borders or, failing that, other African states. The minister of works and transport, Alpheus !Naruseb, who attended the meeting, said economic emancipation was a key element of unity and peace in Africa. He said weak economies struggled to maintain peace.
“Only with economic freedom are we able to sustain reconciliation and coexistence in Africa,” he said.
- Additional reporting by Nampa
JANA-MARI SMITH
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