Skills, unemployment and poverty main factors affecting youth: Africities Summit

African economies have to undergo structural transformation in order to address problems faced by the youth in big cities across the continent.

This is the view of Professor Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, regional director of UN Habitat which he shared during the Africities Summit in Sandton today.

Youth development organisations and mayors discussed problems faced by the youth in big cities and solutions that councils could provide. At the heart of problems were skills, unemployment and poverty.

Oyelaran-Oyeyinka said the first move towards addressing unemployment was to transform economies within individual countries. He said as economies moved away from agriculture to industrial and services sectors, they advanced and moved young people into proper jobs.

“ When economies grow from agriculture to industrial to services they become more advance. Ethiopia has been growing at over 10.5% for some time. It is the fastest growing economy in Africa but it is still considered as a less developed country because there has not been transformation of productivity systems. This is the same with many African countries,” he said.

Africa has the youngest population among other continents of the world. About 60% of the population of Africa is under the age of 25.

This means cities have to provide more jobs for they youth than any other portion of their population.

Oyeralan-Oyeyinka said informal jobs found in big cities could not transform the quality of life lived by young people.

“For many people these informal jobs are a safety net. These jobs do not dominate big cities like Boston. While should we allow that to happen in Africa. We need to begin to transform our economies from local economies to productive economies. This is the truth of the African narrative. We have a chance now to change it.