KEYNOTE
ADDRESS PRESENTED BY EMMANUEL EGWU ACHA AT YOUTH FORUM MARKING THE INTERNATIONAL
YOUTH DAY 2012, AT TEACHERS’ HALL BY OTIGBA JUNCTION ENUGU, NIGERIA
On behalf of the Entrepreneurship Initiative for
African Youth (EIFAY) Enugu, I welcome you to this strategic Youth Forum as
part of event in marking the International Youth Day 2012. As the theme of this
year’s Youth Day is “Building a better world: Partnering with Youth”; this
forum is aimed at raising questions on how best the stakeholders can
collaborate with youths in realizing a better society. Recently, in announcing
his five-year action agenda, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “Today we have
the largest generation of young people the world has ever known”. United
Nations consider this good news – a dividend. More young people means more
opportunity.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Across the globe, too many young people are
jobless and disaffected. Some are poor; some have dropped out of school; some
are highly educated. But all have few or no immediate prospects. For young
women, the numbers are higher than those for young men; young women are also more
likely to be outside the labour market, for example engaged in unpaid family
work.
A recently released United Nations report shows
the depth of the crisis. Among developed countries, the jobless rate rose from
an estimated 13 per cent to 18 per cent at the beginning of 2011. In Western
Asia and North Africa, youth unemployment is a staggering 40 per cent. Beyond
high unemployment, in many developing countries, young people are often
underemployed or work in poor conditions in the informal economy.
There are some exceptions. Yet for the world as a
whole, the trend is stark: young people are nearly three times as likely as
older adults to be out of a job. These young people want more. They deserve
more. And as we have seen all over the world in the past year, the lack of jobs
is a key source of social and political upheaval.
Recent survey
also indicates that young Africans aged between 15 and 25 represent more than
60 per cent of the continent’s total population and account for 45 per cent of
the total labour force. Unlike other developing regions, sub-Saharan Africa’s
population is becoming more youthful, with youth as a proportion of the total
population projected at over 75 per cent by 2015, due to the high fertility
rate underlying the demographic momentum. It is expected that this increase in
the number of young people will not decline before 20 years or more.
Many young
people have little or no skills, lack of access to finance and networking
opportunities; and are therefore largely excluded from productive economic and
social life. According to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of Nigeria
unemployment rate is approximately 24%, but in real fact there’s no accurate
documentation of unemployment in Nigeria. However, if we are to take into
cognizance the crude estimation from the situation around us and some of the
other statistics mentioned above, the real unemployment rate in Nigeria might
exceed 70%.
Research also shows that the best predictor of
future unemployment is previous unemployment. Youth joblessness leaves a deep
“wage scar” that persists well into middle-age. The longer the period of
unemployment, the bigger the effect. This is a grim diagnosis. Yet there are
reasons for hope. Green jobs, new technologies and entrepreneurship all provide
reasons for hope. Our challenge is to realize this potential.
To realise the
dream of an African Renaissance, the entrepreneurial energies of the people,
especially young Africans, should be harnessed to contribute towards economic
development, job creation and the alleviation of poverty. Worldwide, various
bodies and governments have recognised the importance of entrepreneurship in
job creation and as a prerequisite for sustainable economic development.
Entrepreneurship development concerns the development of the people's potential
as the region's most valuable resource.
The theme of this year’s International Youth Day
is “Building a better world: partnering
with youth”. It is very imperative for the society to establish
collaborations and build synergies with youth in creating a better society.
In order to exemplify its commitment, the United
Nations through its System Wide Action Plan on Youth has recognized the
following priority areas of partnership with the youth inline with the
Secretary-General’s Five-year Action Agenda, namely; Employment,
Entrepreneurship, Education, including on sexual and reproductive health,
Political Inclusion, Citizenship, and Protection of rights.
All over the world, entrepreneurship has been
recognized as a key to addressing youth unemployment.
The Entrepreneurship Initiative for African Youth
(EIFAY)- an Enugu based youth entrepreneurship development NGO through its
vision of raising twenty first century young entrepreneurs that will transform
African economy has developed a strategic youth entrepreneurship development
intervention called Partnership Action for Youth Enterprise Development (Project PAYED)
- a master project of the organization that
explores partnership model and holistic approach in addressing the challenges
of young entrepreneurs in the society. Project PAYED addresses such biggest challenge of young entrepreneurs in our
society including absence of appropriate financial schemes for startup Capital
often complicated by financial institutions’ considerations of most young
people’s lack of collateral/guarantees and limited financial history and
experience as disqualifiers for the provision of credit lines, lack of access
to equity capital, lack of access
to business ideas, mentoring, skill development and lack of encouragement
towards innovation and adoption of other global best practices in steering
today’s corporate organization.
Expectations of
project PAYED would be realized through building coordinated efforts and
partnership with different stakeholders (governments at all levels, civil
society, organized private sectors, philanthropists, development partners etc)
in creating a common wealth, support the facilitation of innovations and
adoption of global best practices in youth enterprise development. We are
indeed ready to partner with all stakeholders to make youth entrepreneurship
work in Africa.
So let us get to work.
Let us forge partnerships that get more young
people involved in greening our economies.
Let us also improve the access of young women to
male-dominated jobs.
We look forward to pursuing these efforts together
Ladies and gentlemen, Investing in young people is
not only the right thing to do, it is also smart. As the Secretary-General said
: “We have a choice. Young people can be embraced as partners in shaping their
societies, or they can be excluded and left to simmer in frustration and
despair”.
We don’t have a moment to lose. We have the world
to gain.”
We don’t have any other continent other than
Africa, let’s build and develop it by partnering with entrepreneurial and
innovative youths for Africa’s transformation in the twenty first century.
Fellow youths, I wish you fruitful deliberations
today on the best way we can shape our societies through youth
entrepreneurship.
Yes we can!
HAPPY SUSTAINABLE PARTNERSHIP WITH THE YOUTH!
Emmanuel
Acha
Executive Director
Entrepreneurship Initiative for African Youth
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