By ALICE NACHILEMBE
Zambia’s Ambassador to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the African Union, Emmanuel Mwamba says Zambia has a cadre of young and inventive entrepreneurs ready to take Zambia to great heights but lack capital, technical support and business mentorship.
Speaking when he addressed the first Zambia Virtual Youth Summit organized by the Anakazi Center for Women Empowerment and Development, Mr Mwamba said Zambians are determined to create a country of their own dreams.
He called on all stakeholders to strengthen activities and policies that will promote home- grown entrepreneurs and involve young people at all levels.
Mr Mwamba said Government alone could not manage to provide jobs to all its citizens but with a good entrepreneurial base in place, unemployment could be a thing of the past if youth entrepreneurship was aggressively promoted.
“No foreign country can develop our country. We have to develop it ourselves. Therefore, we must take an inclusive approach where we involve everyone, especially women and young people,” he said.
He said both government and the private sector needed to invest in young people.
Mr Mwamba said there was a general recognition that few formal job opportunities existed and therefore, all stakeholders needed to give life skills to young people.
He said this way, the young people could employ themselves and employ others.
Mr Mwamba also called for special attention to be given to girls education if national development was to be attained equitably.
“We need to pay special attention to the girls so that they are not left behind in the developmental agenda of Zambia. We need more young and innovative entrepreneurial ladies who are going to help transform Zambia.” he said.
He also called on government and the private sector to involve young people to in decision
making.
“We cannot decide for what young people want. We need to understand that they can help
make the decisions. We need to bring them to all the tables, whether its at government level,
at company level and whatever group level in everything that we do.”
The inaugural Youth Virtual Summit also held a special event called the Eagle’s Nest Summit. This was a pitch event by young people to table their business ideas.
