Africa-Press – Namibia. THE African Development Bank (AfDB) is working on establishing an African youth investment bank to build young entrepreneurship capacity on the continent.
This was said by the bank’s president, Akinwumi Adesina, at the bank’s annual meeting last week, while responding to young entrepreneurs’ concerns and frustrations.
Young people from several African countries presented their activities in various sectors (information technology, fashion and textiles, and sport management) to the assembled leaders, and proposed their visions for the future.
“We need training centres on artificial intelligence. We want to produce medicine, we want to have the best training centres in engineering and science. We import things young people in Africa can produce. We need to invest in research institutes and technology centres to produce what we want,” Ida Padikuor Na-Tei, a technology specialist, said.
Awura Agyeman, the co-founder of a fashion and design company called Wear Ghana, said the industrialisation of Africa, championed by leaders and pan-African institutions, can only be achieved if Africa processes its raw materials locally to add value.
“Second-hand clothing will not allow Africa to industrialise. It does not create jobs. Africa needs to work on locally produced goods to improve integration,” said Agyeman.
Sport journalist Owuraku Ampofo said sport is a unifying factor for the continent.
Global sport events have always demonstrated solidarity and unity among Africans, he said.
“Many young people want to leave the continent, not because they don’t like Africa, but because they want to work when they finish their studies, and they think they will find a better job elsewhere. We must show them everything is possible here, and that they can earn money by staying in Africa,” he said.
Artist Selorm, the chief executive officer of Selo Group, believes Africa’s story can only be told by Africans and hopes to see a senior African leader speaking on international platforms in an African language.
“It is up to us to promote our culture and sell our cultural wealth,” he said.
Responding to this Adesina said the bank was working on establishing a youth investment bank to give young people more opportunities to train, invest, and create jobs for themselves, thereby succeeding on the continent.
“This project will reinforce the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa initiative, through which the Bank has made US$420 million available for women’s businesses in 2021. This will be increased to US$500 million in 2022,” he said.
Others present at the event were the African Union commission’s deputy chairperson, Monique Nsanzabaganwa, and Kenneth Ofori-Atta, Ghana’s minister of finance and chairman of the AfDB group board of governors.
According to Ofori-Atta, 950 million Africans are under the age of 34.
“Our youth is our power, and we need to educate and train them to make the impossible possible,” he said.
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