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Add to Preferred SourcesUnited Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres world leaders in calling for greater investment in jobs for young people in Africa, calling them the continent’s “greatest asset.”
“Investment is crucial to harness Africa’s youth dividend,” Mr. Guterres said at an event organized by the United Kingdom, Canada, Ghana and Rwanda on the margins of the annual high-level General Assembly in New York.
He cited the need for investments in health and education, as well as in science, technology and industrialization.
Today, one-third of African youth are unemployed; another third are vulnerably employed or in low-value jobs in the informal sector. The Secretary-General said this reinforces poverty and inequality.
Young African women are even worse off, he pointed out, noting that it is estimated that gender gaps in the labor force cost Africa $105 billion in 2014 alone.
At a time when the rest of the world will be ageing, Africa’s youth – with their energy, innovation, ideas and solutions – are an asset for the global labor force, Mr. Guterres emphasized.
Around 60 percent of Ghana’s population of 30 million people is under the age of 25, noted its President, Nana Akufo-Addo, adding that for most of the last decade, the growth of the country’s economy has barely kept pace with population growth.
“Basically, we have an economy that is not generating jobs and not expanding,” said the President. “Youth unemployment is the greatest threat to the stability of our country and to our democracy. So finding solutions as to how to grow the Ghanaian economy so that it can produce jobs – that is the biggest single issue confronting our country.”
Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, added that educating young people and giving them opportunities in Africa is something that matters not just to the future of Africa but to the future of the world.
Original source: UN News
Published on 25 September 2018