Lack Of Skills Threatens Employment Growth In Africa- Adesina

One of the biggest challenges facing governments in Africa is providing employment opportunities for young people to enable them have decent lives and contribute to the social and economic development of their countries. 

Speaking on this challenge at the ongoing annual meeting of the development finance institution in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, the president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina said lack of skills among job seekers is the problem of unemployment in Africa.

“Our challenge is lack of enough skills; managerial skills to actually run industries properly and this continues to be a big challenge all across Africa so there is still a lot of work to be done making sure that you have the right kind of skills to be able to run industries,” he said.

“Capacity building of human resources is extremely important. We talk about the infrastructure a lot. The most significant infrastructure to my mind is grey matter. If you do not develop people skills then what will you develop?

“We are talking about the African continental free trade area, yes. It’s a market of $3.4 trillion but we cannot talk about that in theory. There has to be a huge industrial capacity.”

The former Nigerian Minister of Agriculture further said  “If we get our integration right, Africa will be more competitive, will be able to create a massive amount of jobs and, more importantly, Africa can develop in dignity and confidence”.