African youth and agropreneurship

If truly education is the future of civilisation, I still wonder why Africa remains the bane of progress even when blacks are all over the world unleashing potentials that drive the world to its goals. Must it be a blame game? I don’t believe that is the right thing to do, but instead, we should be the ones to place our minds on the right track to track down every necessary way to move our countries and continent to the next planet of development.

After graduating from the university, African youths often encounter difficulty accessing good job placements. The global youth unemployment rate, which has long exceeded that of other age groups, saw its most massive annual increase on record in 2009, but having Africa at the top of the chart with the highest numbers. It is evident that many youths tend to settle for a job that will provide for their basic needs until retirement. This has been the norm in the last half-century on this part of the world.

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It is high time African youths waked up to walk in the light of getting it right, doing what is right. Though with otherwise mindset, Hitler said in his words, that Africa would be his farmland if he had conquered the world. This is a glimpse of what Africa can do best even when almost 50% of our processed foods are being imported. In spite of Africa dominance in the area of agriculture, we still lag behind in reality, to earn the due share of its dividend. Africa exports raw materials to the rest of the world. It produces 75% of the world’s cocoa but receives only 3% of the $100 billion per year revenue in the global market for chocolate.

Youth unemployment is not a problem unique to Africa because as at January 2017, the youth unemployment rate in Nigeria, for example, was about (12.7%) of OECD nations which was almost double the general unemployment rate (8.2%). This is disheartening and needs our utmost attention so that our next generation will be exonerated from this menace.

At this juncture, I must say that he who looks down or up to himself will surely have his fair share in the future and as a matter of reality, he who takes plenty out of nothing is he who sees beyond now. Any economy that sunk her mind in natural resources will soon realise that the so-called potentials exist with limitation, but a nation that powerfully believes in its human resource will be at the edge of greatness forever.

The African Development Bank has committed to investing $24 billion in agriculture in the next ten years, to help drive the transformation of African agriculture. With this, the only way forward is to unleash Africa youths potentials, as it accelerates agricultural development. Africa must feed itself, and if Africa fully unlocks its agricultural potential, Africa will feed the whole world.

By Rotimi Johnson

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