Ekeh told THISDAY that there was an urgent need to arrest the restiveness of unemployed youths in Africa, but that such empowerment must begin with the provision of ICT tools in order to be sustainable.
He urged the Heads of State of the African Union meeting in Malabo Equatorial Guinea to look beyond fiscal credit as means of empowerment and set in place policies designed to achieve the ownership of ICT products like PCs, printers, and internet access for the majority of African youths.
She said the choice of Youth Empowerment was timely, commendable, and a bright response to the Arab spring.
Ekeh said ownership of PCs would accelerate the attainment of the MDGs. The AU, according to her should make it mandatory for its member states to give the provision of ICT products priority attention and use the Peer Review policy to nudge members to compliance. She also noted that Africans should be persuaded and must consistently buy products made within the region to ensure national development.
In addition, she said that the AU should honour African investors who make substantial investments in Africa.
She said TD believes that the expansion of indigenous businesses across national boundaries should be encouraged and promoted by all relevant authorities in furtherance of the African Union’s objectives of regional cooperation, integration and development.
She recalled that TD partnered the African Union when it declared the ICT sector as a “sector of top priority”. Subsequently, in 2010 TD adopted the African Digital Agenda, propagated by the African Union Commission as a coherent and integrated approach for the implementation and follow-up on the ICT declaration, as the platform for her operations in West Africa.
The Heads of State of the African Union have adopted ‘’Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Development’’- as the theme of the 17th African Union Summit fixed for the 23rd of June – 1st of July, 2011 at Malabo Equatorial Guinea.
TD has used the African Digital Agenda to become an industry benchmark for dynamism, efficiency and competitiveness in the West African region while impacting on local markets.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Efem Nkanga
Quelle/Source: THISDAY Live, 23.06.2011
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