The African Development Bank (AfDB) has challenged African governments to play a major function in job creation for Africans.
At the 5th Tony Elumelu African Entrepreneurship Forum in Lagos, Nigeria, on Saturday, AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina said this.
“We have market failure, the current market system doesn’t provide financing to them (population of Africa), and you have governments that are not playing their roles enough and that’s why we are producing so many people that are just jobless. What I want to propose today is this, that it’s time for African Leaders, African Governments to begin to shift from youth empowerment to youth investment”, Adesina lamented.
It is time for African leaders, governments, to start shifting from empowerment of youth to investment in youth.
Among the dignitaries at the forum were Senegalese President Macky Sall, Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
“If you have knowledge, if you have invested in a skill, if you are investing in an infrastructure, what do you do with that? If what follows it is to get a business, is do ing business, is entrepreneurship,is peoples creativity and innovation that has to be put into play,’‘ Kagame said.
The Tony Elumelu Forum this year concentrated on ‘‘Empowering African Enterprenuers’‘.
“What we do at the Tony Elumelu Foundation is just to create this kind of platform for all of you, give you the opportunity to interact with our leaders and give you little capital to help you prove your ideas so that people and young ones don’t go to grave with their ideas, we want to see you succeed”, Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation said.
With his initiative, the African philanthropist is planning to generate 10,000 entrepreneurs across the continent.