Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera has emphasized the need for African countries to establish collaborative platforms that leverage the continent’s population advantage to address the human capital shortcomings of other continents, thereby fostering a better world globally.
Speaking on Monday at the Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe during the official opening of the 9th African Population Conference, Chakwera asserted that Africa must mobilize its population towards nation-building with a focus on long-term, disciplined development, rather than succumbing to short-sighted, election-driven exploitation and consumption.
“I doubt that there is anyone in this room who does not know that other continents in the world are struggling to sustain their labour markets 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.
“If only we can remove our afro-pessimistic lenses and see that the youthful and enterprising population of Africa is a resource we must harness and equip to solve the sustainability problems that the ageing populations of other nations are grappling with,” said Chakwera.
He said Africa needs to celebrate and leverage it’s demographic dividend by nurturing, empowering and deploying it’s people.
He further said the perspective by other continents that African poverty is exacerbated by its overpopulation is wrong, saying this narrative is afro-pessimism as Africa has enough resources to sustain its people.
Chakwera therefore urged the participants at the conference to take the conference as a solution-oriented event, not a competition on who can complain about Africa the loudest.
“This is a new Malawi for a new Africa, and we are too busy focusing on finding solutions to waste any time on meetings that add no value to the creation of Africa we want,” he added.
