The “Jobs for Youth in Africa” programme launched by the African Development Bank (AfDB) could create 25 million jobs over a 10-year period, its President, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has said.
He said he does not believe that the future of Africa’s youths lies in Europe. Neither does it lie at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, where many of them have been drowning in attempts to migrate to Europe.
Rather, Adesina said, the future of Africa’s youths is in Africa helping to grow its economy and employment opportunities, hence AfDB launched the programme.
Speaking at a conference on “Africa, Challenges and Opportunities: Italy and the African Development Bank,” in Rome, Italy, Adesina said the bank launched also the “Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA)” to encourage banks and finance institutions in Africa to lend to female entrepreneurs and businesses run by women.
Adesina in a statement accessed by The Nation at the end of the conference pointed out that it was now “critical to change the lenses with which we look at Africa, from development aid to profitable investment.”
He said the evidence for this came from the tremendous success of the bank’s new mould-breaking initiative, the Africa Investment Forum, an event dedicated to investment transactions, which took place last month in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The AfDB president said at the Forum that investment interests were secured in deals worth $38.7 billion in three days of transaction-dominated meetings among investors, the private sector and African countries.
He expressed confidence that with a growing middle class and rapid urbanisation, consumer demand from a burgeoning middle class would turn the continent into a prime collective investment opportunity that could not be ignored.
“This is positive proof of an Africa in the process of full transformation. Africa is the new international investment frontier,” Adesina said.
He noted that with $11.6 billion, Italy was the largest European investor on the continent in 2017, and the third largest after China and the United Arab Emirates.
At the conference, the Italian Minister of Finance and Economy Giovanni Tria commended the AfDB for its role in fostering a favourable investment environment and addressing Africa’s development challenges.
While pointing out that “Africa is a continent of great change and opportunities,” Tria said the continent is home to five of the world’s fastest growing economies.
He, however, said only four African countries out of 54 would record a negative growth in the year, compared to eight in previous years.
According to Tria, the narrative about Africa was wrong. He said, for instance, that Africa today has five distinctive advantages, including a huge land mass of 30 million square kilometres and huge resources.
He listed others to include a fast-growing population, fewer conflicts and major developments in education, and an economy that has consistently expanded over the last 15 years, even though it still only accounts for three per cent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“There is clear evidence of sustained demand growth across the continent. Consumer spending will reach $2.5 trillion by 2030, while business-to-business investments will reach over $3.5 trillion in the same period,” Tria said.