The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has stated that young people in Nigeria and across 51 other African nations do not require handouts in the name of empowerment programmes, but rather access to capital to transform their ideas into sustainable wealth.
Speaking during an exclusive interview aired on Sunrise Daily, a morning programme on Channels Television, on Thursday, April 10, Dr Adesina described the ongoing emigration trend among Nigerian youth — commonly referred to as the “japa” syndrome — as a significant loss to the country.
“Young people don’t need freebies; they don’t need people saying, ‘I just want to give you an empowerment programme,’” Adesina said.
“They have skills, they have knowledge, they have entrepreneurship capacity, and they want to turn their ideas into great businesses, What young people need is not those empowerment programmes; they need capital, they need you to put your money at risk on their behalf,” he added.
Dr Adesina, a former Nigerian Minister of Agriculture, emphasised that Africa’s youthful population should not be seen as a challenge but as a powerful demographic asset, similar to the experiences of India and China.
He argued that this asset must be harnessed through strategic investments in education, vocational training, and access to finance.
He highlighted the importance of transforming Africa’s youth bulge into an economic advantage by focusing on human capital development.
“If young people in Africa are well-skilled, have access to decent jobs and social protection, they will become a major driver of prosperity on the continent,” he said.
The AfDB president also stressed the need for African economies to focus on internal consumption, particularly in an era of increasing global trade barriers. According to him, building domestic consumption into the continent’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is key to long-term resilience and growth.
