Youth Employment: ECOWAS Complements Member-States’ Efforts

The Economic
Communities of West African States (ECOWAS) has said that it is actively complementing its member-states efforts to promote youth employment initiatives.
The Principal Officer, Youth, Sports and Employment of the Commission, Mr Kennedy Barsisa, who disclosed this in an interview with journalists in Abuja, said this informed the adoption of five-year plan from 2013 to 2018 by ECOWAS Council of Ministers in 2012.
Barsisa said the plan was meant to provide an environment favorable for the creation of decent job in the West African region.
He said studies had shown that the unemployment rate in ECOWAS member states was mainly linked to mismatch between the training provided and labour market needs.
According to him, unemployment rate had gone from 16 per cent to 31 per cent between 2005 and 2011 in the sub-region.
He said the search for solution to unemployment in West Africa led to a roundtable involving the private sector and tertiary institutions in Dakar in February.
Barsisa said the meeting mobilized the private sector and other development partners to support programmes and initiatives in tertiary institutions.
He said the meeting also recommended that the private sector should drive the process of producing quality graduates while governments should produce the enabling environment for the private sector’s investment.