The African Development Bank (AfDB) has called on governments and private sectors in Africa to grow, finance and support large scale youth-led businesses in the continent.
President of the AfDB, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, said this at a virtual High-Level Roundtable on Scaling up Financing for Youth Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Africa from Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire on Monday.
The AfDB had approved its Job for Youth in Africa Strategy to help create 25 million direct and indirect jobs and empower 50 million youth over a 10-year period.
The bank also established a multi-donor Youth Entrepreneurship and Innovation Trust Fund, funded with 40 million dollars by Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Italy and the UK. Adesina said that the capacities and entrepreneurial drive of the youth in Africa needed to be unleashed to create jobs, noting that the youth must be supported to go beyond job seeking.
“We must grow, finance and support large scale successes of youth-led businesses in Africa.”
Ms Arancha Laya, Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, Spain, noted that entrepreneurship was recognised as a driver for economic growth but pointed out that there were too many hurdles to intra-African trade. (NAN)
