Youth employment is crucial to promoting technology in Africa - Selorm Adadevoh
Date: 2024-01-30
The Group Chief Commercial Officer, MTN, Selorm Adadevoh has
emphasized the need to empower the youth through education to drive
technological transformation in Africa. He shared this on the second day of the
2024 African Prosperity Dialogue currently going on in Accra, Ghana.
Speaking in a panel discussion on “Critical Enablers
for Single Market Success – Leveraging Infrastructure, Innovation, and
Technology”, Mr. Adadevoh highlighted the advantages of harnessing the power of
the youth to push Africa to the forefront of technology.
He said, “Africa
is lagging behind the rest of the world when it comes to technology. About 50%
of the population does not have access to internet services. According to the
World Bank, we will need about 1.7 trillion dollars to invest in infrastructure
to catch up with the rest of the world in the next 10 to 15 years.”
He added, “transformation, I believe, begins with the
mindset. The chain of influencing infrastructure transformation starts from
what we are willing to do. One area we need to tackle to solve this
issue is education. It is not enough to invest in the infrastructure without
investing in the skills needed. Africa has the largest youth population in the
world. We must harness the power of the youth by transforming our current
educational system towards a more digital framework.” he added.
Mr. Adadevoh also explained the importance of creating
markets within our markets in pushing Africa to the forefront of technology. He further added, “Until we start to create markets within our markets, this will not be
economically viable. We must begin to rely on ourselves to find cheaper
solutions to our problems. A lot of payment options around the world started on
this continent but have been sold. This is because of the barriers in trade
across African countries. There must be a collective effort to break these
barriers and allow ease of transaction so that we can collaborate towards
building the Africa we all wish to see.”
The Africa Prosperity Dialogues is a three-day event
that has the overarching focus to propose concrete measures to drive Africa’s
progress. Themed “Delivering Prosperity in Africa: Produce. Add Value. Trade”,
the three-day high-level dialogue brings together government and business
leaders from across Africa and beyond to deliberate and exchange ideas on key
issues and solutions in building and harnessing Africa’s growth.
