President of the African Development Bank, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has disagreed with many who believe in youth empowerment. He said that youth investment is the only key to unlock the envisioned potentials of youth.
He disclosed this after interviewed on the sidelines of the just-concluded World Bank/International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings in Washington.
He further said they should invest in youth and unlock their potential. That is why there is need to have youth entrepreneurship and investments banks specially developed, and dedicated to young people, where a young person would enter, and they feel at home all the time because it is fully dedicated to them.
He said there is a lot of challenges for every micro businesses to have access to finance because they are not identified. He further said that in the case of young people in Africa, a lot of factor is affecting them which includes government failure, institutional failure, and missing markets to support them. They are just there, floating; there is nothing around them. So, I believe it is time to really set up youth entrepreneurship and investment banks that would basically support young people to thrive.
He emphasized that these young people are the future of Africa, So, whatever should be done, must be done now. Nigeria undoubtedly had over the years engaged in series of empowerment, yet poverty, under-development, social and political oddities still exist therefore action should be made.
