In Summary
This is in line with the bank’s Jobs for Youth in Africa Strategy, according to AfDB’s Group President Akinwumi Adesina.
Abidjan - The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has launched the Presidential Youth Advisory Group (PYAG) to provide insights and innovative solutions for job creation for Africa’s youth.
This is in line with the bank’s Jobs for Youth in Africa Strategy, according to AfDB’s Group President Akinwumi Adesina.
The initiative aims at creating 25 million jobs and impacting 50 million youth over the next ten years by equipping them with the right skills to get decent and meaningful jobs. It is currently the largest effort going on for youth employment in Africa.
The advisory group, inaugurated on the sidelines of the 6th EU-Africa Business Forum in Abidjan on Monday, will work with the Bank to create jobs for Africa’s youth.
“This is a huge opportunity for Africa. If we fix the youth unemployment challenge, Africa will gain 10-20 per cent annual growth. That means Africa’s GDP will grow by $500 million per year for the next thirty years. Africa’s per capita income will rise by 55 per cent every year to the year 2050,” he said.
Dr Adesina, who identified Africa’s greatest asset as its youth, observed that out of the 13 million youths that enter the labour market each year, only 3 million (33 per cent of African youth) are in wage employment, while the rest are underemployed or in vulnerable employment.
The annual gap of more than 8 million jobs is going to worsen, with the number of youth expected to double to more than 800 million in the next decades.
“Africa has an unemployment crisis among its youth,” he stressed, noting that unless employment opportunities are created for them, Africa’s rapidly growing population of youths can give rise to serious social, economic, political and security challenges.
The Citizen
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