West Virginia Professor Underscores Need for Investing in Technological Capacity of African Youth 

Addis Ababa, October 10/2023 (ENA)- Investing in the African youth and building their technological capacity is key to development, West Virginia University Professor Bhaskaran Gopalakrishnman told ENA.   

According to him, building the technological capacity of the youth is critical for Africa to achieve its goal. 

Investing in digital capabilities of African youth, underpinned by both technological and human capacity offers the most robust strategy for achieving the goal of the continent.    

The professor, who participated in the International Telecommunication Union Regional forum for Africa held last week in Addis Ababa, said African youth also need similar avenue of technological and digitization knowledge exchanges. 

He underlined that Africa should invest in the youth and build capacity through exchanges with developed countries to benefit from new technologies and digitization.  

“It's important that the legal frameworks allow seamless and transparent participation by the stakeholders, in this case the youth. So, whatever that can be done to have a seamless transition from the youth, ideas and impressions and how they can be mapped and translated to policy decisions within the legal framework is important.” 

Professor Gopalakrishnman believes that a critical mass of skilled workforce that can effectively apply emerging technological advancements and their sophisticated integration within every aspect is needed.  

“Merely having internet access or digitization platform and mobility is not enough. That have to be coupled or married to the appropriate technical or non-technical aspects of different technologies developed at the various levels so that both of them can be integrated together for better advancement of the youth,” he elaborated.

Capacity development of the youth, who constitute 60 percent of Africa’s population, is crucial for inclusive growth and development. 

“We have to go to the source; and people that are really important in this whole argument are the youth. So we need to understand where they come from, and what is it that they have as issues and try to have leadership groups of youth at different community levels who can then bring ideas together that can be discussed at higher levels of policymakers and government and come up with solutions.”

The overall aim of Africa’s digital transformation strategy is to harness digital technologies and innovation to transform African societies and economies to promote Africa's integration, generate inclusive economic growth, stimulate job creation, break the digital divide, and eradicate poverty for the continent’s socio-economic development and ensure Africa’s ownership of modern tools of digital management.