Why African youths are finding it hard, Tony Elumelu

The chairman of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Tony Elumelu, has said that government policies have become major hindrances to successes of endeavors of youths in Africa.

He spoke at the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group.

According to him, youths in Africa are “determined, energetic, hungry to succeed and make a difference and are extremely intelligent,” but he noted “the environment makes it difficult for them to succeed.”

Elumelu said African governments must make the youths a priority in their various endeavors.

He said “Governments need to understand that if we prioritize the young ones and make the operating environment conducive, they would be able to optimize the required intellects, they would do well and we would be able to solve some of the problems in the continent

“So, regulation is major, intellectual property is very important, incentivizing investors are all factors that will help us address these issues.

“Digital connectivity is a major issue in Africa and you can’t fix it if you don’t have reliable access to electricity. So, if we want to truly address the issue of the digital economy in Africa, these challenges have to be fixed.”

He added that if the issues of policy were dealt with investors would rush down to Africa.

This is coming two days after Nigerians faulted President Buhari on a comment he made saying a lot of Nigerians are lazy and are relying on the fact that Nigeria is an oil-rich country to get things from the government for free.

Credit:  SaharaReporters