 youth employability and empowerment panesia for sustainable economic growth Afrika's population has grown to over 800 million in the last 50 years and is estimated to grow to over 1.8 billion in the next 50 years By 2050, one fourth of the world's population will be African Given the statistics, Africa is the only continent where the youth population is significantly expanding The history of the world's progress reveals that youth have been the frontline agents of every facet of change and the powerhouse of industrial world Africa needs an army of courageous youth who can turn challenges into big-time opportunities in the various fields of life Youth is not a number but a window of opportunity that closes with each passing day It is actually a very important season whose outcome usually determines the rest of a person's life Hence, if an individual doesn't know why he or she is a youth now there is the tendency of abusing and not using it to their advantage The vision of a nation lies in the hands of the youth They are filled with tremendous and towering ambitions It would be a great wastage of human resources if these youths are not allowed to exercise their talent and God-given potentials The entire success of a nation depends on young people but in order for a sustained success it is the government's responsibility to provide the youth with proper facilities for getting equipped with the knowledge of the modern era However, the youth cannot continue waiting for the government forever The current surge of innovations, especially in the tech world has proven that with determination and focus the average youth will be shocked at what he can achieve leveraging on the advantages of the technological industry There is a rising tide of entrepreneurship sweeping across Africa and the young stars are riding it vigorously A growing number of young Africans are not just content waiting around for the proper career bump up the establishment ladder No, their ambitions are much more profound They are setting out to write their destinies establishing remarkable enterprises that will transform Africa and reignite its economies The youth of today are able to determine what kind of investments are made what kind of jobs are created, what type of goods are produced and what knowledge they pass on to others Youth represent the chance to diversify the country's economy towards a more sustainable part harnessing new technology, the internet, new service and new ways of working and communicating with others With the youth comes energy, innovation and optimism if there are supportive environment and opportunities which I believe are being made available by the speed of development across all sectors through digital transformation In summary, it is high time African youth stop seeing life and start giving life They must start questioning the status quo There is the urgent need to start challenging every form of routine that has not contributed in any form to solving social problems If we can think more about our capacity to take more steps and produce results then we will be amazed at how much we can achieve in our time Interesting That's deep That's very close to my heart because I've always been a youth champion because I look like a youth myself It's because I believe that when you talk to children if you both say 12 children from across the world into a room and you have a discussion with them about something as simple as their country's politics or economy it will be quite alarming to see the kind of things that Nigerian youth will be able to talk about while children who are in more developed societies who are empowered at a very young age to start to think for themselves to start to begin to align I can't tell my children what to study for instance in the university they've already made up their minds or they are about to make up their minds and it's based on their strengths, based on their interests I think one of the key things is that the generation that will run the country in the next 5 or 10 years is this generation whether you like it or not you can see what's happening with the tech sector in Nigeria with companies who I've never heard of or heard much of now raising funds $200 million in international world and it just goes to show you that there's so much that the young people have in their minds if you look at generational gaps as well look at how your father or my father related to a mobile phone and look at what things you would do in a mobile phone then look at how I would use it then look at how my child would use it maybe my 17 year old and then look at how a baby was who is probably maybe a toddler who is probably just about one how they can figure out these things it just goes to show you that even without being around in the world for so long the young people have an opportunity to grasp everything that's before them so that generation cannot be ignored and it is very key that they develop from a very early age from when they were in nursery school and primary school not just to be learning Nigeria would like to force knowledge down a lot but more to be able to find out what their strengths are and be able to develop them along those strengths That's good I always say that Nigeria is the richest country in the world when it comes to the abundance of human and material resources we have them in abundance the problem is that Nigeria is at best an incubation for greatness but it's not a habitat it's not a habitat so you see a lot of young people trying to make giant strides with visions and plans but the system keeps frustrating the innovation and creativity in them and that is why brain drain remains a challenge so the problem is that we have potentials and youth leaders of tomorrow but what does the system do the system stifles that youthfulness in you and leaves you with the grand vision of a Canadian passport I'm telling you How did you slide that in there? Plan B? The grand vision of a plan B because once you share 200 million Canadian passports Nigeria will be empty but it's only a matter of time before we all come back we all come back but the other thing that worries someone when we talk about youth empowerment is when you drive around with Lagos and you see this able-bodied young man littering everywhere during the day walking hours you are going to a meeting young men just by the road completely wasting their time and I'm wondering can the government do more can the government give more provide opportunities for these guys to multiply themselves is painful because that's our future right by the side of the road when somebody goes through the university and then the person is the person have graduated gone through all the stress of our education system and now you don't have options and you must have to survive so that's where you have to see those people that they can't die in their house just like a friend said earlier you wanted to die where people will see him so some of these people have to stay outside where they have to find a way to survive where people can see them I think when we talk about the youth have this bittersweet feeling about them because in one breath you have a lot of guys doing great things in the tech industry we have Kuda, we have a lot of big bands online some of us never even imagined we could have online banks even when it first came out I was like where is your head of fiza I need to go and put my money but it's happening but in the same breath you have a couple of youth who do not have that kind of tech exposure but there are still opportunities for them that they are not seeing for example right now we have the we have so many things we can get into and they just need to be more inspired by not the government but a bit ahead of them in age but I just think that a lot is also happening young people also beginning to teach themselves the world of us that's the option that we should be pushing for government to do all that alright is suicide really an option Ejemae asks after the break