African countries must invest in youth for accelerated development — Peter Obi

The Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Vice Presidential candidate in the 2019 presidential poll, Peter Obi says African countries must invest in their youth to ensure accelerated development of the continent.

Obi said this during a panel discussion at the ongoing African Economic Congress (AEC) in Abuja on Tuesday.

The theme of the maiden congress is “Building the Africa We Want’’.

According to him, the greatest asset the continent is blessed with is not oil but the high number of young persons.

He said young people must be empowered and made productive; otherwise the consequences of idle and unproductive youth would consume everybody.

Obi who is also the former governor of Anambra said energy should not be channeled on oil anymore but towards developing the youth.

According to him, Africa as a continent will not witness meaningful change if it fails to develop its youth.

He advised that African countries must also invest more on Information Communication Technology (ICT) and science related areas in order to achieve desirous change.

“We must also invest more in our Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to guarantee economic development.

“All the countries which economies are doing well in the world invest heavily on their MSMEs. For instance, 90 per cent of companies in China are MSMEs,’’ he said. (NAN)