The African Development Bank (AfDB) places the plight of the youth at the center of its approach to promoting Economic Development in Africa. The AfDB believes that investing in youth is an important aspect of the promotion of inclusive and sustainable economic growth in Africa.

AfDB held an expert consultation meeting on developing of the Enabling Youth Employment (EYE) Dashboard for Africa on Tuesday, July 2, 2019, at their offices. The University of Nairobi was represented by Johnson Kinyua, Director, Career Services and Naomi Nyaboga, Chief Information Officer.

The EYE dashboard provides a comprehensive view of the state of youth employment in African Countries and highlights the gaps, barriers, and enablers of youth participation in economic activities. The tool also encourages countries to step up efforts on labor market data and provides policymakers and researchers with a rich source of information to appreciate the nexus between youth empowerment and economic development.

It is estimated that more than half of African Youth are unemployed or underemployed and this brings about high rates of poverty. There is also an increase in university graduates becoming unemployed due to a lack of relevant skills for the ever-evolving job market. There is, therefore, need to match skills relevant to the job market. The AfDB ‘Enable Youth Project’ is helping to address job creation and employable skills.

The Office of Career Services is at the forefront of partnering with AfDB to develop Africa’s next generation of a digitally-enabled workforce. This is a dream that the OCS Office shares with the African Development Bank, Microsoft, Rockefeller Foundation and Google. This is being achieved through “The Jobs for Youth Africa (JfYA) Coding for Employment flagship program” aimed at developing and launching Africa’s next generation of digitally enabled youthful workforce that has been rolled out at UoN. AfDB will also support the creation of a Centre of Excellence at UoN to create a digitally-enabled workforce.