NEPAD Agency CEO Dr Ibrahim Mayaki today cautioned that 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. 

The CEO was addressing government representatives, senior policy makers and business leaders gathered in Abidjan to discuss the nexus between infrastructure development and youth employment. The meeting was part of a week-long discussion on the challenges and opportunities facing Africa as it attempts to accelerate continent-wide infrastructure projects.

Dr Mayaki warned that Africa faces a large and growing unemployment challenge, with 300 million youth entering the labour market in 2030. Half of the continent’s population of 1.1 billion people is currently under the age of 25 years, with this population expected to double to 2.4 billion people by 2050. Moreover, the rate of entrants into Africa’s labour market is expected to increase by three per cent every year until 2020.

Dr Mayaki emphasized that inclusive policies are a pre-requisite for political stability. “A population that has an average age of 49 years cannot be governed in the same way as a population where the average age is 19 years old,” he said. “If we do not succeed in the next 10 years in changing the way we govern and conduct business, we might face huge stability issues on the continent.”

According to him, accelerating the development of Africa’s regional infrastructure could be the game changer that will trigger industrialisation and create jobs. It is for this reason that African leaders developed the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) in 2012, as the means for socio-economic growth and intra-African trade, he explained.  “Structural transformation will happen through industrialisation and industrialisation will be the main factor for creating jobs,” he said.

It was now time to build critical skills necessary to absorb Africa’s youthful labour force and implement infrastructure projects, he said. The CEO mentioned that the NEPAD Agency was working through the leadership of the African Union on a continental framework that will address skills development and job creation for the youth. 

(l-r) AUC Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, Dr Elham Ibrahim and Ms. Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi is the Special Envoy on Gender of the African Development Bank

African Development Bank (AfDB) Director for Human Development, Sunita Pitamber, said that the infrastructure sector boasts massive job opportunities. She highlighted that the Bank “created 8 million jobs through infrastructure development and trained 5.5 million youth in the area of infrastructure”.

Professor of Economic Science and Management at the Cheikh Anta Diop University Dakar, Ahmadou Aly Mbaye,Doyen, urged that the shape of economy in Africa was important to absorb skilled and unskilled labour.