- Urgent Demand: Stakeholders are pushing African leaders to prioritize skill development.
- Key Focus: Emphasis on mentorship, ethics, and youth empowerment.
- Global Competitiveness: Capacity building is crucial for Africa to stay competitive.
- Curriculum Overhaul: Calls for updating school curriculums to boost employability.
Wake-Up Call: Africa Needs Skill-Building Investment Now!
The global marketplace is evolving at warp speed, and stakeholders are issuing a wake-up call: African leaders must invest in capacity building to ensure efficiency and active participation in decision-making. It’s about staying relevant and competitive!
Why Reinvention Matters
Manasseh Dogon, Founder of Metropolitan Church and CEO of MAIME Foundation, stressed the importance of reinvention and personal growth. African leaders need to step up, be active in decision-making, and ditch any feelings of inferiority.
“Leaders in Africa are yet to accept the importance of re-invention, personal re-invention. We don’t invest in capacity development,” Dogon stated. “We must understand that we are all part of the decision-making process, regardless of where you are from.”
Ethics: The Missing Ingredient?
Dogon also highlighted the underrated role of ethics and truth in the global marketplace. He urged young leaders to embrace ethical practices in business, emphasizing the golden rule: treat others as you wish to be treated.
“When talking about business from a global perspective, we must understand that the function of ethics has been so underrated by Africans. We are not ethical,” he lamented. “As leaders, I believe that being ethical is going to help us to be able to understand how to engage leadership and business globally.”
Revamp Education: Outdated Curricula Must Go!
Professor Akin Akinpelu is calling for a complete overhaul of the current school curriculum. According to him, it’s obsolete and failing to prepare Nigerian youth for the job market. The solution? A curriculum that equips students with the skills to be employable.
Creating an Environment for Youth to Thrive
Akinpelu also stressed the need for an enabling environment where young leaders can thrive. He emphasized that leaders should be role models, providing mentorship and guidance.
“The youth want a good environment; they want an environment where they can breathe, they can get to do their business, where they can have opportunities,” Akinpelu noted. “We need a reorientation, we need to get back and present good role models, let’s mentor them, let the role models mentor them, let the visionaries meet the luminaries and help them to grow.”
Additional Information
- Global Skills Shortage: According to a recent report by the World Economic Forum, over 50% of employees globally will require significant reskilling by 2025. World Economic Forum
- Africa’s Youth Population: Africa has the youngest population in the world, with over 60% of its population under the age of 25. United Nations Africa Renewal
- Investment in Education: UNESCO estimates that sub-Saharan Africa needs to increase its investment in education by 6% of GDP to meet Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education). UNESCO
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