Unemployment needs urgent solutions

By Farai Tinashe Munoriarwa

A statement frequently directed to the youth by the elders in our communities is that only you can determine your future by deciding to focus on acquiring a good education and seeking gainful employment in order to have a steady and successful life.

A lot has changed over the past two decades, especially socially and economically. Many countries across the world are experiencing unsteady economies leading to the penultimate devastation of poverty slipping into African countries and communities. Poverty is the biggest challenge that we as Africans face on the continent because it can become generational if not nipped in the bud immediately.

The great belief that sits in the mindsets of our elders, that acquiring an education, especially tertiary education, will lead to the eradication of poverty in families, communities and nations has become a belief without a factual basis due to the way African governments have shamefully ruled their people. A crippling and disheartening high rate of unemployment runs through the minds and hearts of youths on the African continent. Vast knowledge in different fields is being acquired but is not being put to any use, with the youth are just statistics to increase the numbers.

Governments have taken it upon themselves to recruit unemployed youth into the uniformed services as a way of reducing unemployment but that is not the solution. The question civil society will always ask is “why recruit soldiers yet the country is not at war?” and secondly “do armed forces ever do resource mobilisation and fundraising?”. Certain branches of government such as the Ministry of Defence receive the biggest portion of a national budget. However in reality that is unnecessary especially if the country is not at war. Politicians may bring up the argument that creating jobs in the armed forces means more money for the government in the form of taxing the newly employed men and women in uniform.

It is about time governments realised that the strategy they have employed thus far is not working. The solution is right in front of them… incorporate the private sector into decision-making and seeking foreign direct investment (FDI). There is so much said about Africa being behind technologically compared to the rest of the world, so why not use that to our advantage and employ the youth before we catch up to this technology, that's if we ever will.

Incorporating the private sector and acquiring FDI requires our African governments to have steady policies in place, for example indigenisation policies, black empowerment policies that are enticing and lucrative for foreign investors. The African continent has vast natural resources which have the potential to grow through human capital educated abroad and on the continent itself. The right initiatives should be put in place for the African youth to be prosperous and rise from the ashes like a phoenix.

The various stakeholders in the private sector may assist African governments with ways of curbing the high unemployment rate, resource mobilisation and consulting on ways to bring investors into African countries. For instance, the private sector is competitive and does not rely on hand-outs like the branches of government, and is very strict with expenditure unlike government entities. They are also serious about acquiring finances which should be the way our African governments should be managed.

Unemployment should not be taken for granted as it has dire consequences that we as the civil society see on a day-to-day basis such as high crime rates and the increase in African youth joining terrorist groups. It leads people into doing everything and anything to get a source of income hence this makes people easy targets for terrorist organisations to have them be part of their violent activities. Many may turn the blind eye and say sub-Saharan Africa is not affected by terrorism but sadly, the high unemployment rate facing the sub-region makes it an easy recruitment area for terrorist organisations.

Unemployment in Africa is caused by the defective education system. The educational systems in Africa do not correspond directly to the economic realities prevailing outside the school system. Instead of training professionals and people with skills, theory instead of practical is the order of the day. The education system in our countries has failed to respond to the existing inter-generational gap. It simply imparts general and literary education devoid of any practical content. Africa's educational policy merely produces individuals whose services do not reflect the economic trends on the job market. The educational structure, especially the curriculum, does not include industrial skills hence it produces most graduates whose skills are not transferrable. The open-door policy at the secondary and university level has increased manifold unemployment among the educated that are fit only for white-collar jobs and not for self-employment.

Africa suffers from the bad vice of unemployment due to lack of vocational guidance and training facilities. As, already discussed, our education system is defective as it provides purely academic and bookish knowledge which is not job-oriented. There must be a sufficient number of technical training institutions and other job-oriented courses at village level. Most of the students in rural areas remain ignorant of possible avenues of employment and a choice of occupation.

Therefore, unemployment is the matter at hand that should be of great concern because it is the major cause of poverty and crime on the continent. Employment gives financial stability to individuals, families and communities, but yet again financial literacy should be taught as it makes no sense to earn money and use it wastefully, remaining under the poverty line.



*Farai Tinashe Munoriarwa is a post-graduate student at the University of Namibia.