African governments have been asked to provide opportunities for inclusive development especially among its young people.
Dr
Donald Kaberuka, former president of the Africa Development Bank, said
leaders should champion equal access to opportunities for all.
"The
biggest equaliser is access to education. It is not just the number of
kids we're sending to school, but the learning outcomes. The next 60
years are not going to be the same as the last 60, the market is
different,” Dr Kaberuka said Sunday at the ongoing Kusi Ideas Festival
in Kigali, Rwanda.
At the panel
discussion on how to turn the continents’ population explosion into an
economic boom, Ms Sylvia Mulinge, chief customer officer at Safaricom,
said that the challenge was how we create opportunities for the youth.
“There
is an opportunity in creating digital jobs. As it is, you cannot have a
strong company that exists in a weak society. Private companies now
also have a responsibility to support government efforts in creating
these opportunities for development not just of the young people but
entire value chains,” Ms Mulinge said.
Ms
Bintu Zahara Sakor, Africa & Norwegian researcher and data analyst,
Peace Research Institute Oslo challenged the continent’s leaders to put
aside ethnic division and work together to safeguard young people’s
economic future.
"African states need to work more closely
together especially in getting a united outfit. This needs to be
championed by the youth and we can only achieve that through educating
them. That’s how to guarantee their economic future,” Ms Sakor said.
Dr
Carlos Lopez, Honorary professor at Nelson Mandela School of Public
Governance, University of Cape Town argued that if the continent made
the right policies for the majority, then their future would be secured.
“Africans
are living longer and fertility is going down, coupled with technology
uptake by youth pushing us forward, but we need to produce rather than
consume only. This is how to secure the future of the continent and its
young people,” Dr Lopez said.
On her
part, Dr Agnes Kalibata, the President of the Alliance for a Green
Revolution in Africa (Agra) said that offering food security is an
important element in securing the future for the continents future.
“We
all know that hunger is the result of political inaction. It took
Rwanda only three years to reduce the percentage of people that were
food insecure from 55 per cent to 21 per cent. The country has really
worked hard in guaranteeing a secure economic future for its young
people. Other African governments can copy this,” Dr Kalibata said.
Agra
also vouched for the use of technology in promoting agricultural
practice, a trend it says is being championed by Africa’s youth.
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