To stop the trend of brain drain plaguing the continent, African governments have been urged by Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), to generate high-quality jobs for the continent's hordes of unemployed youth.Speaking Thursday in Abuja at the 12th Convocation Lecture and Second Veritas University Digital Innovations Exhibition, he bemoaned the fact that Nigeria is losing its brightest minds to the Japa sickness.
Nigeria was given a mission by the former Minister of Agriculture to use its large young population as an asset rather than a problem.
The $20 billion Desert-to-Power initiative of the Bank will assist 10 additional African nations, including Nigeria, according to the Convocation Lecturer, who was awarded an honorary doctorate by the university.
He stated that when the power project is finished, it would be the largest solar zone in the world, even though it was designed to generate 10 GW of solar electricity.
Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, The Gambia, Guinea, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Eritrea, and Senegal are among the other nations that stand to gain from the project.
Additionally, he declared Veritas University to be an AfDB Center of Excellence for Computer Coding for Employment.
During her speech on the topic of "Africa, It's Your Time," Dr. Adesina stated that money is not what Africa requires. Africa is deficient in viable ideas. Recall that brilliant ideas will always be rewarded with money," he remarked.
"As you enter the workforce, technology and artificial intelligence will play a big role in your lives and in your enterprises," he added, speaking to the graduates. I anticipate that many of you will use analytics and data aggregation to come up with innovative answers to a lot of our problems. The digital and smart economies of the future present enormous prospects.
"I personally care about all of this because I do not want to see the ongoing outflow of young people who, at all costs, risk their lives to go across land and sea to reach Europe.
"The quickest way for Nigeria to significantly increase its economic wealth, generate employment, and give its youth respectable work opportunities is to undertake audacious, goal-oriented industrial manufacturing initiatives that would quickly increase foreign exchange earnings, boost per capita income, and create millions of high-quality, well-paying jobs for the country's youth.
Nigeria, like other African nations, needs to inspire hope in the younger generation. Nigeria's youth must come first if this is to be their country. Africa's youth must come first if this is to be their continent. The youth of Africa and Nigeria need to be able to dream once more.
Although Africa boasts the world's largest reserves of cobalt, lithium, diamonds, cocoa, nickel, copper, platinum, and uranium, as well as 65% of arable land and the largest deposit of solar potential, he bemoaned the fact that these resources have not translated into wealth for the continent because they are exported rather than refined and processed domestically.
The university's vice chancellor, rev. fr. prof. Hyacinth Ichoku, stated during his speech that there are now more than 6,000 undergraduate students enrolled there, up from 1,200 in 2018.
The Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council, Most Rev. Matthew Kukah, also encouraged the graduating students to represent the university well while announcing a N3 million donation to three students who presented their ideas to the assembly.