Chairman of United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, Mr. Tony Elumelu has called on African political, business, religious and community leaders to urgently find ways to give the enormous youth population of the continent economic hope, to avoid extreme catastrophe.
He made the call on Tuesday while addressing via video link the Joshua Generation International Youth Conference, held at the University of Nigeria, Nnsuka. The conference had as its theme ‘Africa: unlocking our potential, securing our future’.
Elemulu noted that Africa is the world’s youngest continent, with 65% of its population under the age of 35, many of whom are not gainfully employed.
He noted that youth restiveness has become a ticking time bomb, and many African countries face issues of extremism, banditry, robbery, senseless killing, kidnapping and political thuggery amongst others on a daily basis.
To tackle the issues, he said “there must be a high sense of urgency”, a dissatisfaction with what is happening, and a commitment to improving things.
“We must accept that we face a crucial period in our history where youth issues must be the main and central issue of our time,” he said.
According to him, entrepreneurship is one of the ways to realise the potential of young Africans, adding that that is why “the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) which my family and I founded in 2010 is the leading African philanthropy empowering young African entrepreneurs.
“TEF is empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, catalysing economic growth, driving poverty eradication, and driving job creation across all 54 African countries.”
According to him, “We need to change the way our young ones see life”, adding “We need to give them economic hope, they need to know that you don’t have to turn to fraud to succeed.”
He called on religious leaders, community leaders, teachers, lecturers, traditional leaders, governments, role models and mentors to lead this crusade of changing the mindset of the young ones.
He said “They must know that the key to success is hard work, commitment, and being laser focused on what you consider important.
“Our young ones must learn about perseverance, patience and must think long-term, they must know that quick gains/wins can create more problems later on in life.
“I believe that a combination of some of this, the right moral foundation, a reorientation of our value system, training and adjusting our education system to be more functional, and above all the things earlier mentioned, entrepreneurship.
“If these are well planned and sequenced, it can help to a large extent to change the future trajectory of our continent.
“Across board, we need to have a moral rejuvenation of our people.
“This cuts across all segments, spheres, and demographics of our society.
“All concerned stakeholders must come together to play their role and ensure this collective reorientation.”
