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African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) touted to offer growth opportunities for African youth and women at the African Economic Research Consortium’s (AERC) 59th Biannual plenary session.

Nairobi, 27th November 2023… The African youth and women stand to greatly benefit from the technological boom and educational improvements facilitated by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), directed towards improving the productive sectors of the economy, which will be instrumental in the development of employable skills.
This was revealed during the African Economic Research Consortium’s (AERC) 59th Biannual plenary session of the Biannual Research Workshop held yesterday, with a focus on the importance of job creation and poverty reduction in the continent.

The session themed Youth, Demographic Dividend, Migration, and Economic Opportunities in African Economies was a culmination of research by leading academics who sought to review the opportunities, risks, and challenges that affect the youth and how African economies can harness the trade-offs of demographic dividend and migration for sustainable development.

Speaking at the official launch of the 59th Bi-annual workshop plenary, Prof. Njuguna Ndung’u, the Cabinet Secretary, National Treasury & Economic Planning ministry, acknowledged AERC’s work in complementing governments across the continent to tackle the issues around youth and unemployment.
“About 10-12 million youth in Africa enter the job market, but only a quarter of that population is absorbed into the labour market. The youth is an untapped resource, and we have an opportunity to accelerate the social economic situation in the continent if we harness the skills of this population. We should expose the youth to entrepreneurial and leadership skills at a young age to establish their access to employment,” he said.

“Human capital development through education is key for a country’s growth. We need to equip students with skills that are relevant to the job market. Governments need to work alongside private sectors to initiate drives to create job avenues for young men and women through business financing, market access and mentorship. In this digital era, we need to be cognizant of the need to empower them digitally to have access to the various digital jobs and it is through such forums that we will get to forge ahead,” he added.

The plenary session also noted that fronting human capital development to enhance youth skills to nurture employability and entrepreneurship via widespread Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) provision was also a major key session. Aligning the education curriculum to embody science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related courses will likely spur innovativeness and ingenuity in young people, thus creating jobs in the digital space, the manufacturing sector, and the ever-growing AI-driven future.
“This forum hopes to inspire young African researchers by exposing them to emerging topical and policy-relevant issues on themes and learning from senior academics as they exposit challenging and intractable development problems. The population provides great opportunities if Africa can fully capitalize on this increased workforce and consumer base to feed more people with more nutritious and affordable food. Conversely, without proactive measures, they could pose significant challenges including continued food insecurity and unemployment,” said Prof. Dominique Njinkeu, AERC Interim Executive Director.

The session also tackled the issue of migration, which is majorly looked at as a development problem as forced human displacement is normalized. This erodes the economic potential embodied in skilled youth, robbing the African continent of the means for meaningful economic transformation. However, there is an opportunity to utilize Africans in diaspora for the good of the continent.
“We need to make the African migration an opportunity for development in the continent. Africans in diaspora have achieved a lot for the continent across various sectors by contributing to economic development back at home to create the continent that we want. Contributions of Africans in diaspora cannot go unmentioned when we discuss the continent’s growth agenda. Their remittances significantly contribute to GDPs and provide financing to government and families. They are also trend setter and role models to the youth to help craft practical strategies and decisions in the workplace. We need to look at them as ambassadors of the continent.” said Professor Kevin Chika Urama, Chief Economist and Vice President of African Development Bank.

 

About African Economic Research Consortium (AERC)

The AERC is a leader in policy-oriented economic research in the continent, and its biannual research workshops have become the largest gatherings of professional economists in sub-Saharan Africa. The Consortium was established in 1988 as a public not-for-profit organization devoted to building capacity for economic policy research into problems pertinent to the management of economies in sub-Saharan Africa. The AERC is a network that builds capacity through three primary components: research, graduate training in economics, and communications and policy outreach. The organization integrates high quality economic policy research, postgraduate training, and policy outreach within a vast network of researchers, universities, and policy makers across Africa and beyond. In the current five years strategy, the AERC has emphasized the themes of raising its quality for research and graduate training outputs that will develop a momentum of its own sustainability that will become important for policy influence across SSA economies. Learn more at www.aercafrica.org and follow us on Twitter @aercafrica.

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