Chakwera says Africa, a solution to other continents

By Kondanani Chilimunthaka

President Lazarus Chakwera has described the African continent as being a solution to other continents in a number of sectors including agriculture and food security.

He said Africa needs a platform that provides a synergy for marrying African Population to human capital disadvantages in other continents to create wealth across the world.

Speaking during the official opening of the 9th African Population Conference at BICC in Lilongwe, President Chakwera said Africa has enough natural resources to sustain its people, and is poised to be a solution to challenges of employment to other continents if governments within the continent and theft through unfair trade policies by greedy governments outside the continent are dealt with.

“I doubt that there is anyone who does not know that other countries in the world are struggling to sustain their labour market demands because they do not have enough young people to work in various industries that are critical to their economies including agriculture and food security.

As such Africa is perfectly poised to be a solution to this challenge if only we can remove our afro pessimistic lenses and see that the youthfuls and enterprising population of Africa is a resource we must harness and equip to solve the sustainability problems that the aging population of other nations are grappling with” Said President Chakwera.

Malawi leader further told the conference that as a country, Malawi feels grateful to host the session of the 9th African Population Conference as there could be no better case study on the development implications of the population dynamics in Africa than Malawi itself, saying having enjoyed three decades since attaining multi-party democracy, time has come for the country to reflect on how the democratic values, norms, and institutions can be strengthened as the demands for the same grows with the population as well as how the democratic rights and freedoms of Malawi’s increasing population can be sustained.

Chakwera has since urged African countries to create education systems that train their populations to solve the problems being faced currently and work in the sectors that have the greatest potential for speedy and inclusive economic transformation.

The Conference runs from 20th May to 24th May 2024 under the theme: “Roads to 2030: Leveraging Africa’s Human Capital to Achieve Transformation in a world of Uncertainty”.