Youth development: Africa can do better – Commonwealth Secretary General

The Secretary-General of Commonwealth, Patricia Scotland has called for a reformation in the education systems of African countries to meet current job demands.

Speaking at the end of a three-day Commonwealth Youth Senior Officials Meeting in Accra, Patricia Scotland recognised the progress made by some African countries in the empowerment of the youth but added there is still more room for improvement.

She asserted that the cure to the never-ending issue of youth employment on the continent lies in institutions equipping the youth with entrepreneurial skills.

“The Commonwealth has 2.4 billion people but 60 percent of that number are under age of 30 so our youth isn’t just our present, they are our future. Our young people are fantastic so I’m really committed to investing in those people. If you look at the people our world, 1.8 billion who are in Commonwealth, every one in three are going to be in Africa between the ages of 3 and 29 which is a huge number".

“If you look at the new innovations that are coming, they are coming from the young people. If you look at businesses, twenty of the top businesses in the world did not exist twenty years ago. It was Africa that decided first how to do telebanking. Some of the huge innovative achievements are going to come from Africa. Africa has done remarkably well but there is an opportunity for us to do better with the youth”, she said.

The Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Curtis Perry Okudzeto who moderated the event, expressed his utmost satisfaction and underscored its importance to the African youth.

He also reaffirmed the commitment of the Akufo-Addo-led government to the betterment of the Ghanaian youth which is manifested in the numerous youth interventions.

“The deliberations here has been on youth development. The issue is that every country that come here presented where they were in terms youth policy interventions. It’s also a platform to look at best practices and for countries to learn from each other and I believe that we’ve had quite a fruitful and engaging session. Ghana presented as host countries the things that we are doing in youth empowerment and youth entrepreneurship, youth employment, we’ve had presentation from the Youth Employment Agency, NYA, NEIP, we’ve talked about NaBCO nad other interventions”, he said.

The Chief Executive Officer of the National Youth Authority (NYA), Sylvester Tetteh said “The meeting offers the country an opportunity to re-align its youth policy development and operations in line with the best international standards and learn what is happening in other parts of the world.