WHAT YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT MEANS IN AFRICA

As the sun rises and its rays glimmer through the beautiful skies of Nairobi, one of Africa's most promising commercial and strategic hubs .Matatus are heard hooting loudly, signifying the beginning of a day, a day that promises to be better than yesterday,Africa unlike most parts of the world promises a rather frustrating and yet interesting day for majority of his young population, a generation that seems quite different from those that have come before.From a window across the room i can spot several young men and women rushing in a unitary direction,their faces written with mixed reactions.This faces tell a different African story,one that is full of renewed hopes and resilience,a key phrase that is now beginning to shape how economic assessment reports about Africa are being relayed to the world.As i get up in readiness to catch up with what a day in Africa holds for me, i feel a little scared about how things are going to unravel in a while, life in Africa's largest city is becoming unpredictable and a hard one for most young people who move to the cities in search of employment opportunities.

Its eight o'clock in the morning as i cruise through the central business district,tall sky crappers line up the city's sky; a testimony to modern civilisation and development.As i move through the city's streets i can hardly walk faster than i anticipated, people seem to be strolling up and down the streets,some chit chatting with their friends, while some building the nation. As i can see from most of their facial expressions.You can guess that they are echoing to the calls of our founding fathers, of building the nation from whichever corner it can be build.As i close in one of the busiest streets in the city,i spot Mike, a  friend and a graduate of economics and finance, from a closer view from where he sits and engages the rest of his colleagues, i can clearly see that he is visibly agitated and looks rather remorseful about the whole street banter about being unemployed for a year now.I decide to cross over and  meet Mike and perhaps see how things are, we exchange the normal greetings this time in a street lingo that Mike never spoke in campus, a testimony to changing times.As we sit down he tells me that life in the city is beginning to take a heavy toll on him, the hungry nights and the static wardrobe he has now, is beginning to change the way he looks at current economic growth prospects and tales that are being carried around.He asks me why buying a new pair of classy shoes is becoming an uphill task if indeed the economy is growing at current speculated rates?i find the question a bit broad,  one that would involve delving into a bit of  economics 101, to get into whatever causes his inability to afford a nice pair of shoes in the city.
As we catch up with the latest in economics . Joe a friend of  Mike's, joins us in our street banter about why unemployment rates are soaring high in the nation.A closer and a casual glance at Joe gives you the picture of a man in his twenties probably employed in some tier one commercial bank, you can tell that from the way he has dressed. But all this is lost when he says he works at some bakery downtown where he earns a penny in salaries in addition to commissions given when booms descend on the baking industry,a case that has been rare for the two years he has worked at the bakery.Joe says he studied actuarial science at a renowned public university and graduated with a first class honours degree.Before he graduated he had envisaged working at multinational insurance firm but says things took a turn when he could not find a job as an insurance underwriter at any of the local companies.He is quick to blame the education system for preparing him for a deferred life. One that he thinks is slowly becoming some huge fantasy.For Joe he has learned to live with what comes his way and hopes that a better future is still on its way.He represents a majority of Africa's most learned youth who work and  earn a living in the low value jobs they never wanted in the first place.

Crime resort as Mike prefers to say is another path most youths in Africa's cities are turning to.According to Benny another guy who joins our conversation.A super majority of the criminals operating in the city are university graduates who have resorted to join criminal gangs to meet their needs.He says crime in the city conducted by this graduates are sophisticated and often live urban folks perplexed with tactics employed.He further says that to most of this criminals, crime is proving to be a lucrative take away, a sure bet compared to searching for employment opportunities in the city. Infact from one of his encounters with a group of friends, he says that his friends tell him that crime pays better than they had imagined.With the government moving in swiftly,Benny says his friends have either lost their lives or have been sentenced to correctional facilities where their once bright stars are slowly becoming dimmer.

While unemployment has been dragging the economic gains made in Africa something new and refreshing is happening.Many of the unemployed youths are driving change in the continent,, they are using knowledge gained in their studies at the universities and are refusing to wait and look at opportunities pass them,they are transforming cities by offering innovative and transformative solutions to urban problems.Benny, a computer science graduate with a hands on experience in programming and mobile software development has changed shopper's experience by creating a mobile app that allows a shopper to order groceries from the comfort of their homes and pay for their deliveries using mobile money system.He says unemployment is good in the short run and it helps you put your house in order in readiness for a major take off.Further he adds that unemployment has made the continent a hub for research and development initiatives going by the numbers of Ivy league university researchers that have been streaming to Africa for their research studies.

Unemployment as Mike finally says is a situation that proves that beyond uncertainties that surround Africa's economic landscape are opportunities that are waiting in the horizons.