Africa-Press – Tanzania. INFORMATION and Communications Technology (ICT) is set to create more employments for the country’s youth as the government has started implementing plan for making the sector as one of major job creators.
The move is being executed in line with the objectives of the Third Five Year Development Plan (FYDP III) whose main objective is to use science, technology and innovation (STI) in the creation of jobs for the people, particularly youths.
The Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Dr Jim Yonazi, disclosed this while opening the Youth and ICT Roundtable Meeting which was held virtually yesterday under the coordination of Internews Tanzania.
This meeting is part of events organised ahead of the International Youth Day marked annually on August 12.
Dr Yonazi identified that the Global Employment Trends for Youth 2020 show that young workers have continued to experience high employment rates, whereby 30 per cent of youth, an equivalent to 429 million who are in the labour force live below the poverty margin.
“The report also shows a large section of the youth in developing countries have little access to digital platforms unlike their counterparts in the developed countries.
“In Tanzania only 30 percent of youth between the ages of 18-35 years have been reported to use the internet and possess mobile phones unlike their counterparts which is 100 per cent,” said Dr Yonazi.
“Due to the huge unemployment rate and its effects in Tanzania between 2016 and 2019, the government in collaboration with other stakeholders has been implementing employment policies, programs and projects to enable young people to access jobs and to be able to employ others.
He observed that the allocation of more resources dished out in the form of loans to youth, women and people with disabilities is among initiatives used by the government to generate employment.
In the current digital era, different strategies are needed to facilitate the initiative considering the fact that economic growth largely depends on the use of digital technology in manufacturing, production and service delivery sectors.
In his presentation, the Associated Editor of The Chanzo Initiative, Joel Ntile, expressed a concern over high mobile transaction charges and aviation regulations on recreational light drones operations in the country.
He was of the view that in recent years most youth have been engaging into digital marketing but due to the recent shift on mobile money such businesses are no longer operational.
“This has affected many youth who relied on the trading platforms to employ themselves…very few can manage to pay for things as used to,” noted Ntile.
He further called upon the government to look into the aviation regulations which demand people operating drones to enroll into a course before being allowed to operate.
According to him, many youths who are earning an income through photography cannot manage the hefty charges.
