Côte D’Ivoire Envoy Advocates Adequate Investment In Youth Education, Skills

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Côte d’Ivoire Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Kalilou Traoré, has emphasised the need for substantial investment in the education of African youth to enhance their skills development and promote self-reliance.

Traore said this while speaking with the Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.

The envoy said though African governments were making efforts to empower youths, he, however, noted that educational skills should be prioritised.

According to him, educational skills which entails hard skills “technical abilities” and soft skills “interpersonal abilities” encompass youths ability to learn, use and apply knowledge, and concepts effectively.

He noted that such investment was crucial for academic success and prepare young people for various life and career paths, saying it would enable African youths compete favourably with their counterparts globally.

Traore said, “In Côte d’Ivoire, we used to have 40 per cent of the budget dedicated for education during long years and even today, education is the priority for the youth.

“When we talk about education, it’s also important to properly guide people toward skills-oriented learning. Today, we distinguish between general education and vocational or technical education,” he said.

“Young people need practical skills. Otherwise, they may complete a masters degree and still not know what to do next. That’s why it’s essential to invest in skill development,” he noted.

“Another increasingly important priority is investment in entrepreneurship. In the past, young people were educated primarily to become civil servants or salaried employees,” he noted.

“Today, it’s no longer possible to provide jobs for everyone. We must focus on nurturing entrepreneurship among the youth,” he emphasised.

He reiterated that by doing so, African countries could rely on the youth for the future by investing in education and skills development, saying that such investment should also be grounded in strong values.

“We talk about our African value and also all the global value we can take. We cannot go on the way of African value; you need to mix all the good values.

“As African countries, we have gone through many experiences. We have gone through slavery, then colonization and after that, we went through post-independence.

“We have also experienced many coup d’etats over 30 years; now we have gone to democracy. This is life and all those experiences should enrich our people.

“The most important things we have to do is give more importance to values that help us move from poverty and conflict situation with these problems to move forward.

“We need to hold on to our core values as African people while embracing the positive values from other regions, blending both to carve out our own unique path,” he added.

The envoy cited the remarkable progress made by several Asian countries over the past 20 to 50 years, expressing hope that African nations could also enhance youth development.

“We can succeed. We can rise above our current challenges and improve the lives of our young population. We must remain committed to this direction.

“Our focus should be on improving the quality of life for Africans and making the continent a better place to live. We truly believe there is hope for our youth.

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