2 weeks ago
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A Nigerian lawyer and Executive Director of the Lift Africa Foundation, Aisha Hamman, has urged African governments to follow governance-based approaches to addressing the continent’s younker employment crisis.
She made the telephone astatine the 2025 World Bank Group (WBG)–International Monetary Fund (IMF) Civil Society Policy Forum successful Washington D.C., wherever she spoke connected a high-level sheet titled “Advancing Homegrown Economy done Sustainable Infrastructure and Skills Development successful Africa.”
Hamman said Africa’s unemployment situation goes beyond economics, describing it arsenic a governance and concern contented that demands governmental will, fiscal innovation, and organization accountability.
She noted that the clip had travel for governments to “move from argumentation papers to implementation pipelines,” stressing that younker employment strategies indispensable beryllium backed by data-driven results alternatively than governmental rhetoric.
According to her, African nations needed to fortify the nexus betwixt argumentation and signifier by creating nationalist younker employment transportation units that coordinate crossed cardinal ministries — specified arsenic education, labour, and innovation — to guarantee wide accountability.
She besides called for a reimagining of improvement financing to determination beyond short-term programmes and transmission resources straight into community-based enterprises and innovation hubs that empower young radical to make sustainable livelihoods.
Hamman further emphasised the value of aligning nationalist grooming initiatives with backstage assemblage demands, ensuring that young radical get skills that lucifer manufacture needs.
In her view, this concern betwixt government, business, and civilian nine would span the spread betwixt acquisition and employability.
Equally, she underscored the request to impact section governments and accepted institutions successful co-creating inclusive solutions that prioritise younker and women-led initiatives astatine the grassroots.
Finally, she called for transparent monitoring systems that measurement tangible outcomes — specified arsenic the fig of youths gaining meaningful employment — alternatively than focusing solely connected budgetary allocations oregon disbursement volumes.
Citing palmy models specified arsenic Kenya’s Ajira Digital Program and Nigeria’s Andela and Flutterwave, Hamman said Africa has already demonstrated the capableness to present scalable, youth-driven innovations.
What is needed now, she added, was a governance model that sustains and expands specified impact.
“Africa is not conscionable consuming innovation — we are exporting talent, not tragedy,” she said.
“Our aboriginal depends connected aligning governance, skills, and endeavor with the realities of a caller planetary economy.”
Under Hamman’s leadership, the Lift Africa Foundation has been instrumental successful promoting equity, justice, and inclusive governance crossed Nigeria done ineligible reform, civic empowerment, and societal accountability programmes aimed astatine gathering stronger institutions and widening opportunities for young people.
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