Youth empowerment is crucial to promoting technology in Africa - Selorm Adadevoh

Selorm Adadevoh – Group Chief Commercial Officer, MTN has emphasized the need to empower the youth through education to drive technological transformation in Africa. He shared this on the second day of the 2024 African Prosperity Dialogue currently going on in Accra, Ghana.

Speaking in a panel discussion on “Critical Enablers for Single Market Success – Leveraging Infrastructure, Innovation, and Technology”, Mr. Adadevoh highlighted the advantages of harnessing the power of the youth to push Africa to the forefront of technology.

He said, “Africa is lagging behind the rest of the world when it comes to technology. About 50% of the population does not have access to internet services. According to the World Bank, we will need about 1.7 trillion dollars to invest in infrastructure to catch up with the rest of the world in the next 10 to 15 years.”

He added, “transformation, I believe, begins with the mindset. The chain of influencing infrastructure transformation starts from what we are willing to do. One area we need to tackle to solve this issue is education. It is not enough to invest in the infrastructure without investing in the skills needed. Africa has the largest youth population in the world. We must harness the power of the youth by transforming our current educational system towards a more digital framework.” he added.

Mr. Adadevoh also explained the importance of creating markets within our markets in pushing Africa to the forefront of technology. He further added, “Until we start to create markets within our markets, this will not be economically viable. We must begin to rely on ourselves to find cheaper solutions to our problems. A lot of payment options around the world started on this continent but have been sold. This is because of the barriers in trade across African countries. There must be a collective effort to break these barriers and allow ease of transaction so that we can collaborate towards building the Africa we all wish to see.”

The Africa Prosperity Dialogues is a three-day event that has the overarching focus to propose concrete measures to drive Africa’s progress. Themed “Delivering Prosperity in Africa: Produce. Add Value. Trade”, the three-day high-level dialogue brings together government and business leaders from across Africa and beyond to deliberate and exchange ideas on key issues and solutions in building and harnessing Africa’s growth.