Speaker Tajudeen Urges African Nations to Prioritize Job Creation, Sound Financial Management

In order to ensure the economic future of the continent, African countries have been entrusted by Speaker of the House of Representatives Abbas Tajudeen to block revenue and create jobs.

In Abuja, Mr. Tajudeen presided over the inauguration of the eighth annual conference of the African Network of Parliamentary Budget Offices.

“The Role of PBOs in African Parliaments’ Fiscal Oversight: Contribution to the African 2063 Development Agenda” is the theme of the week-long conference.

Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, Cape Verde, Gambia, Somalia, Uganda, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Tanzania, Malawi, and Liberia were among the countries that sent representatives to the meeting.

With 1.4 billion people, or about one-sixth of the world’s population, Africa is at a pivotal point in its history, according to the speaker.

The African continent, according to the congressman, is youthful, developing, and full of great potential.

With over 200 million citizens and a projected GDP of $477 billion in 2022, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and bears a unique role in this African tale.

The African Union’s Agenda 2063, which serves as the blueprint for the Africa we desire, reflects our ambitious goals and the continent’s wealth of resources and young, gifted people. The road to achieving this ambition is still challenging, though,” he stated.

He claimed that Sub-Saharan Africa’s economy was growing again, albeit slowly, with the World Bank predicting that it will rise from 3.3% in 2024 to 3.5% in 2025.

While positive, this is still insufficient to address our demands for development. According to Mr. Tajudeen, 464 million Africans are expected to be living in extreme poverty by 2024, demonstrating the pervasiveness of poverty.

He went on to say that underemployment and unemployment were serious problems, particularly for young people.

Twelve million young Africans join the workforce annually, but only about three million formal employment are generated. He cautioned, “This disparity in opportunities highlights a potential demographic dividend that could become a demographic risk if we do not act.”

According to Mr. Tajudeen, government budgets must appropriately reflect development goals in different nations, including national and continental development plans, and be backed by strong oversight procedures.

According to him, Africans looked on their parliaments to carefully balance public spending with more general development goals and to take constituents’ opinions into account when making fiscal decisions.

According to the African Development Bank, capital flight costs Africa more than $587 billion a year, the speaker said.

He claimed that among other ways, the money fled the continent through profit shifting by international firms, corruption, illegal trade, and mispricing.

He claimed that the annual cost of corruption in Africa alone was estimated to be at $148 billion.

According to the speaker, Nigeria served as a warning about the difficulty and pressing need for supervision.