Tony ElumeluAfrica’s leading philanthropist, investor and founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Chief Tony O. Elumelu has described youth unemployment as waste of talent and betrayal of a generation, as well as being one of the major contributors to extremism and insecurity in Africa.
“Youth unemployment is a waste of talent and a betrayal of a generation. It feeds extremism and insecurity.”
He emphasized that the fight against extremism and conflict must start with making youths to be productive and creating jobs as the centre piece of African countries’ policies.
The top African entrepreneur and banker, who spoke in a virtual Fireside chat hosted by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and the Heritage Foundation on Building Entrepreneurship, said that the economic transformation of Africa lies in the hands of the young ones and young entrepreneurs.
Speaking on the topic: “Building entrepreneurship, economic opportunity and peace in Africa,” Tony Elumelu said that the young entrepreneurs who have great ideas, energy and audacity should be encouraged to see what and how they can contribute to the development of the African continent.
“Unfortunately in terms of job creation and opportunities for our youths, Africa suffers and lags dismally behind.
“It has therefore become critical to lead conversations and forge partnerships across the world that should help to address this fundamental issue.
“U.S. relations with Africa in my view, should be re-imagined, away from aids to focus on youth empowerment and support for sustainable institutions that should allow teeming youths to be productive.”
According to him, poverty anywhere is a threat to mankind everywhere, stressing that extremism is a product of poverty, joblessness and lack of education.
“We need to remove the incentive of being extremist in the 21st century in Africa, by engaging and providing jobs for the young ones.
“On my own in 2010, my family founded the Tony Elumelu Foundation. Our purpose was simple; we wanted to democratize luck, we wanted to create economic opportunities for people.
“We wanted to play our own role in economically empowering our young ones and making them become better future Elumelus.
“So far, we have supported over 16,000 Africans. We set out to support 10,000; 1,000 every year, but through collaboration with like-minded partners we have been able to increase and achieve over 16,000 in seven years since we set up the entrepreneurship programme.
“I believe that the time to act is now and we need to do so urgently. We need to work together to avoid global catastrophe.”
This was even as the Special Assistant to the President of the United States and Senior Director for Africa at the National Security Council, Dana Banks, said that the U.S government through the Prosper Africa initiative is looking at how to support African startups and entrepreneurs.
“In 2016 Africa Start-ups generated about $350 million in capital. In 2021 it was already up to $4 billion and on track in 2022 to generate $7 billion in capita.
“Through our Prosper for Africa Initiative, that was relaunched in July by President Biden, we have many tools in our tool box and one of the tools that was recently launched would provide additional credit to African startups to help them shape their businesses and community.”
It is on record that the Tony Elumelu Foundation, founded in 2010, has trained more than 60,000 young entrepreneurs in 54 countries in Africa.
It has given about $200 million to trained entrepreneurs across Africa.
Source: Persecond News.
