At the opening plenary of the 24th World Economic Forum on Africa on Thursday, May 8, 2014, it was revealed that 112 million workers would enter Africa’s labour force by 2020.
According to President Goodluck Jonathan, who expressed the view that the need to create jobs remained a global problem, in Africa, unemployment problem was compounded by youthful population and pending demographic transition.
According to him, “an additional 112 million workers will enter Africa’s labour force by 2020. This is daunting and should be a wake-up call to all of us in Africa to work harder on job creation with a great sense of urgency.”
Job creation, which President Jonathan said remained the main focus of Nigeria’s Transformation Agenda, was the main focus of the event, alongside inclusive growth. Without inclusive growth, it was observed, “inequality will endanger progress in Africa.
Africa’s precious resources must benefit ordinary Africans,” in the world of Oxfam International Executive Director, Winnie Byanyima.
Byanyima had, a day previous, made the observation that if unchecked, inequality in Africa, which she said was rising to dangerous levels, would undermine the usefulness of economic growth on the continent.
In her views, Africa’s economic profile was “schizophrenic”, with sharp growth occurring, while a high numbers of people remained, stubbornly, locked into poverty.
“Africa’s economic growth is capturing the headlines and there is much to build upon,” she said noting that the average growth rate of the region excluding South Africa is very high at six per cent. She said Africa’s growth “is enriching some more than others” observing that the wealth of the three richest Africans, at $39 billion, is more than Kenya’s entire GDP in 2012.
She observed that the rising inequality in the continent was reversible, through investment in public services. “These trends are reversible. African countries must crack down on corporate tax dodgers and invest far more in free healthcare and education and in industries that can create more and decent jobs.
“One of the simplest things that governments can do to help diffuse the inequality time-bomb is to invest more in public services. Public services redistribute by putting virtual income into everyone’s pockets.”
President Jonathan, while reiterating the country’s plan to modernise and diversify the Nigerian economy by focusing on priority sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, housing and construction, and the services sectors, called on more foreign investors to participate in the Nigerian economy.
“We are working to unlock the obstacles faced by businesses so they create jobs. We must ensure there is a maximum inclusiveness through creating opportunities for people to create opportunities for themselves,” he added.
Despite obstacles Nigeria’s president admitted to, Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum on Africa and President/Chief Executive Officer, Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, insisted that Africa’s, most especially Nigeria’s corporate environment is conducive to doing business.
Dangote, flaying people’s negative reports on Africa’s corporate environment, said “people talk only about the bad side, but there are lots of opportunities,” adding that Nigeria and many other countries create opportunities for capital allowance, zero duty and value-added tax on machinery, as well as tax holidays.
He said if these were not so, his company wouldn’t have taken the risk of investing in Nigeria. He observed that “the biggest challenge today is that some [Africans] would rather keep money abroad. You are not creating confidence. You must invest your own money to encourage foreign investors.”
Dangote had announced that he was investing $16 billion in Africa’s agriculture, $12 billion of which will be invested in Nigeria. At the end of a four year period, he said his company would have created jobs for 180,000 youths.
Joining several foreign investors showing interests in investing in Africa, the Premier of the People’s Republic of China, Li Keqiang, pledged his country’s continuing cooperation towards Africa’s development, stating that China will prioritise infrastructure development.
In his special address, at the opening session, Keqiang said “we will work with Africa to upgrade and build transport infrastructure to promote connectivity on the African continent,” while making note that his country was interested in a high-speed railway, a network of expressways and an aviation network.
Keqiang added that China would “vigorously advance” the African Talents Program, providing 18,000 scholarships to African students and training 30,000 African professionals, noting that training schemes will also be offered by China’s enterprises and Confucius Institutes in Africa.
“China will step up its investment and financing cooperation with Africa by providing an additional $10 billion in credit to make its pledged credit line a total of $30 billion,” Li said, adding that another $2 billion to make the China-Africa Development Fund a total of $5 billion.” The Chinese government will also provide Africa with $10 million to protect its wildlife and biodiversity and promote sustainable development across the continent.
