His Excellency President Dr. Julius Maada Bio has assured the Africa Human Capital Heads of State Summit that he will make sure the youth are in the front seat of national development in Sierra Leone.
President Bio said: “I will make sure the youth are in the front seat. I have started, and I will make sure they are involved in everything related to them.”
With over 70% of young people appointed in his Cabinet after his re-election, President Bio reposed huge confidence in young people. This move has been highly commendable by political analysts in and out of Sierra Leone.
In his manifesto (2023- 2028) commitment, President Bio commits to creating 500,000 jobs for the youth in five years through a targeted Presidential Initiative on Job Creation for the Youth.
He said his government will be deliberate to create the right environment and seek out opportunities for the youth through both the public and private sector including in; public works, food production, agro-processing, the creative industry, digital and green jobs.
Additional commitments made by the president include: Involvement of youth in Agriculture, livestock, aquaculture and value chain; Increase youth access to finance, capital and grant; Provide conducive trade and business environment for young people; Promote peer learning schemes-e.g., livestock management; Introduce training centres on short courses for needy skills- e.g operation of agricultural machinery and equipment, fertilizer introduction, pest control, farm management etc; Develop data base on youth with skills in agriculture; Review and enforce copyright laws for music, and arts; Review and enforce the copyright laws; Review policies and establish standards for promotion of music and performing arts; Establish institutions and introduce training at vocational and university level in music, film, and video production; Establish an Arts Gallery and Theatre for Performing Arts in all regional capitals; Promote Sierra Leonean music and musicians nationally and internationally and maintain good business ethics in the industry; Build youth skills in new industries that have high demands, e.g interior decoration, fashion, and design industry etc; Support Arts and craft iii. Finance and support creative economy through a tailored innovation challenge; Provide training, loan facilities and seed capital for artists and local investors in creative industry; Developing the Entertainment industry as part of job readiness; Set up systems to support youth-led household enterprises by addressing constraints, including lack of adequate capital; and Provide training and counselling on business related activities among youth owned enterprises to be piloted in regional headquarters.
The president also promised to establish an information technology platform to promote youth employment and empowerment to enable the collection and dissemination of information on jobs, training and livelihood programmes, policies, and opportunities for the youth iv. Increase access to social protection programmes; Introduce rehabilitation and reintegration programmes for drug/substance abusers; Include unemployed youth in the existing safety net programmes v. Youth participation in governance; Increase youth representation and inclusion in every area of governance; Review procedures and policies governing election of youths across youth councils (community, chiefdom, district and national) and ensure equal gender representation; Train youth in leadership skills vi. Inculcate a culture of civic nationalism, patriotism, and job through national youth service; Review the legal framework for the National Youth Service Scheme to create opportunities for graduate youth to live and work in areas/district different from their origin; Investment in entertainment, strategically positioning it for job creation for young people; Expand youth service scheme to cater for graduates from TECVOC; and Supporting young people to tap into the digital and green economy opportunities.
President Bio is currently in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to attend the Africa Heads of State Human Capital Summit with the theme: ‘Accelerating Africa’s Economic Growth: Boosting Youth Productivity by Improving Learning and Skills.’
The president tweeted: “The Summit provides a unique opportunity to deliberate on strategies to accelerate investments in learning, health and skills, to secure the productivity of the region’s people as its greatest asset.
“Human Capital Development has been my government’s national development priority to unlock the aspirations of our people and the nation’s economic potential in the last five years.
“We’re happy to share our model with the rest of the continent and show how Sierra Leone is gradually becoming Africa’s Human Capital Development success story.
