The youth unemployment rate is reported to have increased to over 41.5% of the population, with between 15 and 35 years unemployed. The lack of job opportunities and limited access to education and training is believed to have contributed to this problem, which has had huge social and economic consequences.
The 2022-2023 labour force status of the working-age population revealed that on average, four in ten persons of working age are engaged in the labour market (43.6%), by either working or being unemployed. The population outside the labour force (56.4%) comprises persons only studying (23.4%), subsistence farmers (9.4%) or persons in other situations such as elderly people, physically challenged and discouraged job seekers (23.6%).
Mr President, the above is a clear indication that your government should double up in making sure that more employment opportunities are created for young people to excel. This is not only going to increase our revenue base but will also reduce the number of crimes committed by jobless young people on our streets.
It is clear knowledge that the dependency ratio in this country continues to grow higher due to the limited access to jobs. This has forced many young people onto the streets to either steal for survival or cause crimes in our streets. As a result, some people end up as drug consumers/dealers, mostly cause of frustration and lack of a job. We acknowledge that since the introduction of the Youth Employment Project in the country, the lives of many young people have been transformed but it should not stop at one shot, rather much is expected to continue creating an enabling environment for job opportunities for young people.
Although the youth employment project played a significant role by offering training to many young people, we can clearly state that many people with the skill are jobless and cannot have a starting capital to establish their personal businesses. We are aware that some grants were given out to eligible young people for start-up businesses and we encourage your government to continue to work immensely for such a great gesture.
Mr President, limited access to job opportunities could be one of the contributing factors to why many of our young people taking to irregular migration that has claimed the lives of hundreds of our young people in recent weeks in the sub-region. These young people left their families to find greener pasture in Europe. To cope with such a sad situation, your government should work to make sure that destination Gambia attracts more investors in the productive sector of our economy and continue to advance the introduction of Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) in school curriculums and create more centres for tertiary students to explore.
Mr President, we know you may have heard of many scamming activities involving our young people in the internet space in their quest to find online businesses to boost their financial muscles. Youth leaders have been crying loudly and revealed that some of the people scammed complained of not having job opportunities. This should be a national concern and something should be urgently done to activate the hopes of many frustrated young Gambians. With more dedication and commitment from your government and other investors, a lot could be changed to address this issue.
Finally Mr President you will start the annual meet the people tour today till December 6, 2023 to hold 18 community meetings and visit project sites on agriculture, rural water supply, education skills centres, roads, energy, sports, infrastructure and food processing.
Mr President among your top priorities are the ferries which need grand attention; we need new ferries through bilateral cooperation with China, Japan, Turkey and Greece.
People have expressed concern to get new ferries to alleviate problems of travelling.
Farmers will discuss with you good and fair prices of groundnut to be paid upfront to make sure that it will not be sold outside the country. We need improved reliable and affordable water and electricity supply.
Good day!