The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has called on African leaders to create quality jobs for its teeming unemployed youths to stem the trend of brain drain bedeviling the continent.
Speaking Saturday in Abuja at the Second Veritas University Digital Innovations Exhibition and 12th Convocation Lecture, he lamented that Nigeria is losing its best brains to Japa syndrome.
The former Minister of Agriculture tasked Nigeria to turn its huge youth demography into an asset and not a liability.
The Convocation Lecturer who was conferred with an honorary doctorate degree by the institution, also announced that Nigeria has been listed among 10 other African countries to benefit from the Bank’s $20 billion Desert-to-Power initiative.
While pointing out that the power project was conceived to develop 10 GW of solar power, he said when completed, it will be the largest solar zone in the world.
Other countries to benefit from the initiative are Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, The Gambia, Guinea, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Eritrea, and Senegal.
He also announced AfDB’s adoption of the Veritas University as a Centre of Excellence for Computer Coding for Employment.
Speaking on the theme “Africa, It’s Your Time”, Dr Adesina said: “What Africa lacks is not money. What Africa lacks is lack of bankable ideas. Remember, money will always follow great ideas,” he said.
Addressing the graduates he said: “As you join the workforce, technology and Artificial Intelligence will play a big role in your lives and in your enterprises. I expect to see many of you provide creative solutions to many of our challenges through analytics and data aggregation. There are huge opportunities in smart and digital economies of the future.
“All this matter to me personally because I do not want to see the continued exodus of young people who risk their lives to dangerously cross land and sea to go to Europe at all cost.
“The fastest way for Nigeria to dramatically expand the wealth of its economy, create jobs and provide decent work opportunity for its youth is to implement bold, effort-oriented, industrial manufacturing actions which would rapidly expand foreign exchange, earnings, boost income per capita and provide quality and well-paying jobs for millions of its young people.
“Nigeria, as other African countries, must create hope for the youths. If it is going to be Nigeria’s time, it must first be Nigeria’s youths time. If it is going to be Africa’s time, it must first be Africa’s youths time. Nigeria’s youths and Africa’s youths must be able to dream again”.
He lamented that while Africa has the largest reserves of cobalt, lithium, diamonds, cocoa, nickel, copper, platinum and uranium in the world, boasts of 65 per cent of the world’s arable land and the largest deposit of solar potentials, it has not materialized into wealth for the continent, as these resources are exported rather than being refined and processed in the continent.
In his remarks, Vice Chancellor of the University, Rev. Fr. Prof. Hyacinth Ichoku, revealed that the institution’s undergraduate enrollment has increased from 1,200 in 2018 to over 6,000.
Also, Pro-Chancellor and Chairman Governing Council, Most Rev. Matthew Kukah urged the graduating students to be good ambassadors of the institution, even as he announed a donation of N3 million to three students who demonstrated their ideas to the gathering.