Economic transformation remains our only hope - Senior lecturer

African governments have been charged to create job opportunities for the continent’s teeming youth through industrialisation and commercial agriculture.

By equipping young people with employable skills and opportunities, said Dr. Mabel Komunda, Senior Lecturer and Researcher at Makerere University Business School in Uganda, Ghana and Africa at large will be able to address the scourge of unemployment and achieve economic transformation.

She lamented that the continent’s youth have been pushed to the edge of desperation and despair, by failures of successive governments and leaders to provide them with quality education and meaningful employment opportunities that put them at par with their peers from other continents.

This lack of opportunities and a brighter future home is evidenced by the increasing number of young people undertaking the perilous journey via turbulent seas to seek greener pastures elsewhere, notably in Europe and North America, Dr. Komunda said.

Dr. Komunda made these observations during the ‘The Africa we want series’, in a presentation titled ‘Africa’s economic transformation is key to sustainable development: How can it be done? The virtual event was organised by the Policy Initiative for Economic Development’s (PIED)

In 2016 for instance, 5,085 migrants and refugees – mostly from Africa – lost their lives in the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe and North America, reports the International Organisation for Migration, a United Nations agency.

To Dr. Komunda, no African youth would undertake such life-threatening journeys on the seas in search of pastures green if enough opportunities existed in their home countries.

Despite the youth – people aged between 20 and 40 – making up about 60 percent of the continent’s total population, she bemoaned that their innovative and creative potentials are largely untapped.

“There is a lot of untapped human capital in Africa, and the continent is losing lots of such human capital to migration. Most of our lawyers, teachers, doctors and so on are running out of Africa to look for greener pastures elsewhere,” she said.

She cited incessant wars and conflicts in Africa as one of the major challenges to its sustainable development, elaborating that: “These wars lead to lack of peace due to instability. And when the continent is not stable, there is neither production nor savings and investment; and these not only affect standards of living, but also pose a very big challenge to sustainable development”.

She bemoaned the rapidity with which Africa’s numerous natural resources are being destroyed through environmental pollution, deforestation, burning of trees and so on, failing to consider the climate change consequences of these actions on future generations.

Turning a corner

Owing to the aforementioned, she underscored the need for African governments to tap into the untapped innovative and creative potentials of their youthful population – and harness them for the purpose of economic transformation toward sustainable development

“What the governments need to do is to create employment opportunities with good remuneration and conducive working environment for the youth to dissuade them from leaving the continent,” she added.

Opportunities for economic transformation

With a population of over 1 billion people, estimated to be the largest workforce globally by 2040, she indicated that the opportunities available for Africa’s economic transformation towards sustainable development are manifold, saying, “that is an opportunity for labor and for a big market”.

She added that: “There are also opportunities for fostering into Africa, intra-Africa integration where we shall remove trade barriers and that is a big chance for Africa’s economic transformation”.

Role of private sector in economic transformation

She indicated that, almost 90 percent of the jobs in Africa are in its private sector and for that matter, it is imperative that the private sector explore those gaps and fill them to ensure the continent’s economic transformation.

According to her, the private sector stepping in to fill the youth unemployment gaps by training them in skilled labour and sponsoring their education and so on will not only result in changing their livelihoods, but also create peace in communities where they live.

“The private sector should engage in commercialisation of agriculture – adding value to agricultural products, and engage in industrialisation to increase productivity,” she added.

Role of governments in economic transformation

In order to work toward a peaceful course, she noted that it is crucial for governments in Africa to work together on keeping the peace and walking away from wars and conflicts – explaining that the existence of peace is sine qua non of investment.

She recommends the use of incentives for attracting investors to invest in Africa, saying: “This can be done by providing tax holidays, free lands and a peaceful environment. The governments need to have infrastructure in place for easy investment in terms of good roads, water, electricity, solar energy and other structures”.