[Music]
Africa’s population is estimated at 1.2
billion people of that number 420
million IU’s aged between the ages of 15
and 35 although official statistics for
the population of youth below the age of
24 in Africa at 680 million people every
single year Africa welcomes into the job
market 10 to 12 million young people but
sadly only 3 million are able to find
formal employment closer to home in boot
wanna our unemployment rate is trending
at about 40% higher than some of our our
neighbours Namibia and Zambia and
possibly further afield Basu – at about
33 percent lower than South Africa which
is trending much higher at 52% and
Mozambique which one I aspire to be in
the league of upper middle-income
countries but if you look at our
unemployment statistics were trending
higher than those countries which are
sitting at fourteen point six percent
our figures also higher than those of
sub-saharan Africa at 14.1% ladies and
gentlemen deeply troubling statistics by
any measure and this statistics could be
repeated for any other African country
so what is going on here and these
numbers we’ve been warned many many
times that if we’re not careful they can
lead to major social and political
upheaval and if you want to have a keen
sense of the league in dignity to have
not having work of not being employed
sometimes is actually made crystal clear
and the pronouncements of some of the
young people we talked to take the case
of seppo who’s been looking for
employment that has been unsuccessful
and he wonders why he cannot drive a
fancy car BMW like some of his peers Oh
Cobell who’s chosen a life of drugs or a
life of crime rather and possibly drugs
as well since he’s unable to actually
find a job and he’s given up or Alice
who’s taken solace in hard drugs as a
way to actually ease the pain and maybe
even the shame of not being employed
take the case of Taub he’s given up he’s
tried for the past two or three years
he’s been unable to find a job and yet
is a graduate and it’s considered a
suicide
I fundamentally believe that in Africa
instead of actually creating giorgia
creating untold misery and deep
frustration amongst youth and normally
the youth if they don’t like a system
we’ve been told we have a tendency to
destroy it this is why I care this is
why I feel we have not quite applied our
minds to try and sort out the youth
unemployment question now the problem is
further exacerbated by the promise of
the coming fourth Industrial Revolution
which promises possibly a jobless future
where certain professions as we know
them could easily disappear this coupled
with education system in Africa or
systems in Africa there are almost
comatose it’s almost like they’re
ignoring this mega trend and they are
not keeping up with this mega trend
because they are not transforming in a
way that we can all be convinced that
our youth will have employment in this
new future so the promise of the African
demographic dividend the numbers that
are working about could easily turn into
a nightmare so where the jobs it’s well
understood in any economy government and
private sector drivers of economic
growth and job creation the case of
Mauritius for me represents possibly one
of the examples of what it means to
actually have a meaningful relationship
between government and the private
sector that is geared towards a
deliberate commitment to economic growth
and never sit in steel in terms of
creation of jobs
some of this anecdotes and examples
clearly were a given even here in
Botswana of how the Malaysian government
moved from a situation where maybe the
link or the relationship between
government and private sector was not so
strong and the movement was not just on
the government side but also in the
private sector side so possibly here I’m
asking for a lot more seriousness on
both sides
we cannot just be having a meeting just
for the sake of having a meeting and
then having another meeting in two years
where are the jobs as far as I
understand and sometimes this is
disputed government does create jobs as
far as I know and I think the research
even confirms this that two ways in
which government can drive job creation
if government goes on a spending spree
and especially one that’s targeted
towards infrastructure schools hospitals
and so on and so forth clearly jobs will
be created coupled with that
the second method where government will
create jobs or that or depress possibly
push the process of job creation would
be making sure that there is an enabling
environment for business to thrive and
normally this way you’d have
pro-business legislation and regulation
coupled obviously with supportive
monetary policy regime on the private
sector side there’s also two ways in
which the private sector creates jobs as
far as we understand it’s interpolation
especially in an environment where the
number of small and medium sized
organizations or firms or enterprises
are growing in number but in some of our
economies sadly the opposite is true
just imagine in this room maybe a good
200 people or so if maybe a hundred of
you post this presentation
choose to actually join the private
sector and run a business and employ
anything from three to nine people you
can do the multiplication for yourselves
that is why entrepreneurship is a
powerful tool for creating employment
and the feature of developed economies
and why they’re able to hold jobs or
maybe even create jobs is because
clearly if you look at the number of
small and medium sized firms normally
they’ll be in the majority but if you
look at the African setting mostly and
some of the developing countries that
are struggling to create jobs you find
the concept that even the IMF and the
World Bank called the missing middle the
small and medium-sized enterprises in
terms of growth is just stunted and
again because of dysfunctional things
that government and possibly the private
sector does in terms of a relationship I
want to be exceedingly clear the quality
of the relationship in other words are
the two parties coming together to make
sure that we create jobs
the second method on the private sector
side that we all understand is one where
it’s fairly difficult to create jobs and
normally this is where innovation sits
where jobs are created through ideas so
there’s evidence of innovation of
creativity of invention and also of
investment into those very ideas the
most difficult method but one that’s
proven to actually hold jobs were much
longer examples there that come to mind
for me would be for example the ICT
industry a three trillion dollar
industry and with the promise of the
fourth Industrial Revolution for example
software development is coming back it
just shows you there’s even a deficit in
terms of the number of software
developers to fulfill the promise of the
fourth Industrial Revolution
the work that I do normally challenges
us to listen the problems that clients
have and come up with possibly a
solution and sometimes when a client
narrates what the problems are
sometimes I always say to myself this
are not really problems is that possibly
challenges but I’m more I’m more
interested in what the root causes so
for us in the private sector we’ve tried
to respond to this challenge because at
the end of the day government cannot do
it on its own sometimes our for the
private sector the lazy private sector
in terms of actually coming up with
ideas especially on the entrepreneurship
side and also in generation of ideas
especially the source of ideas that will
make sure that the economies of Africa
grow and the whole jobs it’s a concept
we call it the creative technology hub
we saw it through a party that we are
linked with and they were doing it in
Saudi Arabia and the Saudi government
wanted to give respectable work to its
women and they chose the digital lending
industry an industry that when I check
the numbers the latest figures say it’s
destined to grow to six hundred billion
dollars by 2021 so the question that I
have is won’t be part of this but we’re
not part of the Industrial Revolution
we’re not part of the ICT revolution
research and development surely is going
to pass us by but here’s but possibly an
industry that I feel given the fact that
for example in Bhutan it was so many
young graduates ICT AG ICT graduates
possibly it could be one that we could
put our last dollar on so the model is
replicated in Bhutan
when you awaken tirelessly with the
state-owned entity because sometimes I
think again just to buttress the fact
that normally it would be a government
entity possibly and the private sector
that will come up with a solution
and we’ve decided to actually put that
to a test we’ve tricked it but we’ve
made it relevant certainly for the local
context and the primary focus here is to
create or to develop skills for the
youth and also to drive job creation in
addition we believe going forward there
should be a capability to design and
develop digital and blended learning
solutions locally and principally to
transfer the know-how that will come
from outside of our borders to butuan to
drive the development of a digital
learning sector similar to Saudi Arabia
if the model does got different elements
but the idea is that the young people
should come into this hub and learn
skills that are varied so that they come
out of the hub with a firm understanding
what it means to deliver or to produce a
world-class digital learning product the
aspects of project management at the end
of the day each and every single project
has to start and end on time they have
to understand that learning experience
design animation would sit in the
software development management and
leadership and principally
entrepreneurship because you are hoping
that some of the kids coming from here
will be able to go out and be net
employers as entrepreneurs
simply put we foresee a situation where
apprentices or in tents will come into
the hub they’ll be employed by the hub
they be trained within the hub by
experts and certainly they should be
able to produce world-class products
that will be consumed by the government
education corporates and we see an
opportunity as well here in Africa in
terms of development of digital products
what do I mean by that if a young woman
has Illustrated a rhino and a rhino is
supposed to be animated and running it
should look like a rhino
if a young West African is actually
Illustrated a mask from Ghana it should
look different from a must from Nigeria
in terms of numbers we’re fairly
confident that the model will scale up
but in three years we’re looking at
having trained about 360 young people
and created employment for them some of
them will jump out of the hub and set up
their own business and that would be
encouraged in terms of my vision going
forward I foresee a situation where
through this process where basically we
are pronouncing entrepreneurship we’re
pronouncing also the generation of ideas
we are pronouncing that the development
of skills that we feel are relevant for
the future we should be able to see
young competent but to an electable with
world-class skills and digital
technology we should be able to see good
quality digital technology learning jobs
basically littered with in the economy
we should be able to see a thriving
digital learning sector going forward
with possibly an opportunity to actually
export and chiefly entrepreneurs in this
space from the model we’ve identified
that you could actually have young
people coming out to set up their own
anime
studios and possibly providing the
service to the studios in New York or in
Silicon Valley in Capetown is actually
happening we foresee a situation where
software developers would come up and
possibly delight us with their ability
to do gamification something that is
used within Digital Learning production
of videos and so on and so forth
so going forward I see a totally
different picture if our educational
systems we’re to transform or totally be
overhauled to try and usher in and
accommodate digital learning technology
and to be abreast of some of the mega
trends that we see in the world so that
our youth can firmly be puttan puzzle of
the coming fourth Industrial Revolution
thank you
[Applause]
you
Africa’s population is estimated at 1.2
billion people of that number 420
million IU’s aged between the ages of 15
and 35 although official statistics for
the population of youth below the age of
24 in Africa at 680 million people every
single year Africa welcomes into the job
market 10 to 12 million young people but
sadly only 3 million are able to find
formal employment closer to home in boot
wanna our unemployment rate is trending
at about 40% higher than some of our our
neighbours Namibia and Zambia and
possibly further afield Basu – at about
33 percent lower than South Africa which
is trending much higher at 52% and
Mozambique which one I aspire to be in
the league of upper middle-income
countries but if you look at our
unemployment statistics were trending
higher than those countries which are
sitting at fourteen point six percent
our figures also higher than those of
sub-saharan Africa at 14.1% ladies and
gentlemen deeply troubling statistics by
any measure and this statistics could be
repeated for any other African country
so what is going on here and these
numbers we’ve been warned many many
times that if we’re not careful they can
lead to major social and political
upheaval and if you want to have a keen
sense of the league in dignity to have
not having work of not being employed
sometimes is actually made crystal clear
and the pronouncements of some of the
young people we talked to take the case
of seppo who’s been looking for
employment that has been unsuccessful
and he wonders why he cannot drive a
fancy car BMW like some of his peers Oh
Cobell who’s chosen a life of drugs or a
life of crime rather and possibly drugs
as well since he’s unable to actually
find a job and he’s given up or Alice
who’s taken solace in hard drugs as a
way to actually ease the pain and maybe
even the shame of not being employed
take the case of Taub he’s given up he’s
tried for the past two or three years
he’s been unable to find a job and yet
is a graduate and it’s considered a
suicide
I fundamentally believe that in Africa
instead of actually creating giorgia
creating untold misery and deep
frustration amongst youth and normally
the youth if they don’t like a system
we’ve been told we have a tendency to
destroy it this is why I care this is
why I feel we have not quite applied our
minds to try and sort out the youth
unemployment question now the problem is
further exacerbated by the promise of
the coming fourth Industrial Revolution
which promises possibly a jobless future
where certain professions as we know
them could easily disappear this coupled
with education system in Africa or
systems in Africa there are almost
comatose it’s almost like they’re
ignoring this mega trend and they are
not keeping up with this mega trend
because they are not transforming in a
way that we can all be convinced that
our youth will have employment in this
new future so the promise of the African
demographic dividend the numbers that
are working about could easily turn into
a nightmare so where the jobs it’s well
understood in any economy government and
private sector drivers of economic
growth and job creation the case of
Mauritius for me represents possibly one
of the examples of what it means to
actually have a meaningful relationship
between government and the private
sector that is geared towards a
deliberate commitment to economic growth
and never sit in steel in terms of
creation of jobs
some of this anecdotes and examples
clearly were a given even here in
Botswana of how the Malaysian government
moved from a situation where maybe the
link or the relationship between
government and private sector was not so
strong and the movement was not just on
the government side but also in the
private sector side so possibly here I’m
asking for a lot more seriousness on
both sides
we cannot just be having a meeting just
for the sake of having a meeting and
then having another meeting in two years
where are the jobs as far as I
understand and sometimes this is
disputed government does create jobs as
far as I know and I think the research
even confirms this that two ways in
which government can drive job creation
if government goes on a spending spree
and especially one that’s targeted
towards infrastructure schools hospitals
and so on and so forth clearly jobs will
be created coupled with that
the second method where government will
create jobs or that or depress possibly
push the process of job creation would
be making sure that there is an enabling
environment for business to thrive and
normally this way you’d have
pro-business legislation and regulation
coupled obviously with supportive
monetary policy regime on the private
sector side there’s also two ways in
which the private sector creates jobs as
far as we understand it’s interpolation
especially in an environment where the
number of small and medium sized
organizations or firms or enterprises
are growing in number but in some of our
economies sadly the opposite is true
just imagine in this room maybe a good
200 people or so if maybe a hundred of
you post this presentation
choose to actually join the private
sector and run a business and employ
anything from three to nine people you
can do the multiplication for yourselves
that is why entrepreneurship is a
powerful tool for creating employment
and the feature of developed economies
and why they’re able to hold jobs or
maybe even create jobs is because
clearly if you look at the number of
small and medium sized firms normally
they’ll be in the majority but if you
look at the African setting mostly and
some of the developing countries that
are struggling to create jobs you find
the concept that even the IMF and the
World Bank called the missing middle the
small and medium-sized enterprises in
terms of growth is just stunted and
again because of dysfunctional things
that government and possibly the private
sector does in terms of a relationship I
want to be exceedingly clear the quality
of the relationship in other words are
the two parties coming together to make
sure that we create jobs
the second method on the private sector
side that we all understand is one where
it’s fairly difficult to create jobs and
normally this is where innovation sits
where jobs are created through ideas so
there’s evidence of innovation of
creativity of invention and also of
investment into those very ideas the
most difficult method but one that’s
proven to actually hold jobs were much
longer examples there that come to mind
for me would be for example the ICT
industry a three trillion dollar
industry and with the promise of the
fourth Industrial Revolution for example
software development is coming back it
just shows you there’s even a deficit in
terms of the number of software
developers to fulfill the promise of the
fourth Industrial Revolution
the work that I do normally challenges
us to listen the problems that clients
have and come up with possibly a
solution and sometimes when a client
narrates what the problems are
sometimes I always say to myself this
are not really problems is that possibly
challenges but I’m more I’m more
interested in what the root causes so
for us in the private sector we’ve tried
to respond to this challenge because at
the end of the day government cannot do
it on its own sometimes our for the
private sector the lazy private sector
in terms of actually coming up with
ideas especially on the entrepreneurship
side and also in generation of ideas
especially the source of ideas that will
make sure that the economies of Africa
grow and the whole jobs it’s a concept
we call it the creative technology hub
we saw it through a party that we are
linked with and they were doing it in
Saudi Arabia and the Saudi government
wanted to give respectable work to its
women and they chose the digital lending
industry an industry that when I check
the numbers the latest figures say it’s
destined to grow to six hundred billion
dollars by 2021 so the question that I
have is won’t be part of this but we’re
not part of the Industrial Revolution
we’re not part of the ICT revolution
research and development surely is going
to pass us by but here’s but possibly an
industry that I feel given the fact that
for example in Bhutan it was so many
young graduates ICT AG ICT graduates
possibly it could be one that we could
put our last dollar on so the model is
replicated in Bhutan
when you awaken tirelessly with the
state-owned entity because sometimes I
think again just to buttress the fact
that normally it would be a government
entity possibly and the private sector
that will come up with a solution
and we’ve decided to actually put that
to a test we’ve tricked it but we’ve
made it relevant certainly for the local
context and the primary focus here is to
create or to develop skills for the
youth and also to drive job creation in
addition we believe going forward there
should be a capability to design and
develop digital and blended learning
solutions locally and principally to
transfer the know-how that will come
from outside of our borders to butuan to
drive the development of a digital
learning sector similar to Saudi Arabia
if the model does got different elements
but the idea is that the young people
should come into this hub and learn
skills that are varied so that they come
out of the hub with a firm understanding
what it means to deliver or to produce a
world-class digital learning product the
aspects of project management at the end
of the day each and every single project
has to start and end on time they have
to understand that learning experience
design animation would sit in the
software development management and
leadership and principally
entrepreneurship because you are hoping
that some of the kids coming from here
will be able to go out and be net
employers as entrepreneurs
simply put we foresee a situation where
apprentices or in tents will come into
the hub they’ll be employed by the hub
they be trained within the hub by
experts and certainly they should be
able to produce world-class products
that will be consumed by the government
education corporates and we see an
opportunity as well here in Africa in
terms of development of digital products
what do I mean by that if a young woman
has Illustrated a rhino and a rhino is
supposed to be animated and running it
should look like a rhino
if a young West African is actually
Illustrated a mask from Ghana it should
look different from a must from Nigeria
in terms of numbers we’re fairly
confident that the model will scale up
but in three years we’re looking at
having trained about 360 young people
and created employment for them some of
them will jump out of the hub and set up
their own business and that would be
encouraged in terms of my vision going
forward I foresee a situation where
through this process where basically we
are pronouncing entrepreneurship we’re
pronouncing also the generation of ideas
we are pronouncing that the development
of skills that we feel are relevant for
the future we should be able to see
young competent but to an electable with
world-class skills and digital
technology we should be able to see good
quality digital technology learning jobs
basically littered with in the economy
we should be able to see a thriving
digital learning sector going forward
with possibly an opportunity to actually
export and chiefly entrepreneurs in this
space from the model we’ve identified
that you could actually have young
people coming out to set up their own
anime
studios and possibly providing the
service to the studios in New York or in
Silicon Valley in Capetown is actually
happening we foresee a situation where
software developers would come up and
possibly delight us with their ability
to do gamification something that is
used within Digital Learning production
of videos and so on and so forth
so going forward I see a totally
different picture if our educational
systems we’re to transform or totally be
overhauled to try and usher in and
accommodate digital learning technology
and to be abreast of some of the mega
trends that we see in the world so that
our youth can firmly be puttan puzzle of
the coming fourth Industrial Revolution
thank you
[Applause]
you
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