BUSINESS REPORTER
The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has tipped the continent’s youth to be the catalyst in economic transformation, taking a cue from their counterparts during the industrial revolution.
The African youth have been forgotten with thousands dying every year in the Mediterranean as they seek greener pastures in Europe.
In his remarks at Afreximbank’s annual meetings in Cairo Wednesday, the bank’s president and chairman of the board Benedict Oramah said the African youth are poised to make “giant strides” in a single continental market and could seamlessly become the drivers of Africa’s integration and intra-African trade.
The annual meetings which runs up to June 18 is being held under the theme, “Realising the AfCFTA Potential in the Post-Covid19 Era—Leveraging the Power of The Youth”.
“It is no coincidence that at the height of each Industrial Revolution, youth constituted the largest proportion of the labour force and population. For instance, when US and Canada ascended to the ranks of major industrial powers in 1900, their population under 45 were 83% and 82%, respectively; and the population between the ages of 15 and 45 years were 48% and 47% in the two countries,” Oramah said
He said the youth were equally central to the Asian Miracle that propelled Southeast Asia from poverty to prosperity from the 1970s to the 1990s. In 1980, the population under 45 years in China, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan ranged between 76% and 80%, Oramah said.
“… the good news is that Africa finds itself at the exact same spot as the US and Canada in the 1900s and Developing Asia in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Today 85% of the continent’s population is under 45, and 45% are between 15 and 45 years old,” he said.
“This asset in our hands is perhaps the greatest resource, an asset much more valuable than all the oil and mineral resources.”
Oramah said the African youth are beginning to make significant contributions to economic transformation across the continent noting that Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote, began building his conglomerate in his 20s.
Africa is facing a youth bulge amid fears it would turn into a demographic bombs if left unattended. Experts say the youth bulge could be harnessed and converted into a demographic dividend.
