Senegalese youth presented their grievances during a presidential council
Young Senegalese masons take part in a course at a training center.
AFP / SEYLLOU
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
How to improve the employment and integration of young people in Senegal?
Question debated all day Thursday April 22 during a presidential council.
Around the Head of State Macky Sall, were representatives of young people, unions, financing structures, trainers and financial partners.
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With our correspondent in Dakar,
Charlotte Idrac
It was an unprecedented meeting to "speak face to face" with young people, according to the presidency.
Representatives from all over Senegal came to express their grievances, such as Ousmane Mamadou Soumaré, from the Kédougou region, in the east of the country, which declined: "
The plurality of actors in charge of the public employment service and youth, the low employability of young people in the labor market, difficulties in accessing credit, the problem of matching training and employment, insufficient agricultural equipment, tractors, threshers and mowers.
"
In Ziguinchor, the majority of young people have no other choice than to drive "
Jakarta motorcycle taxis
", adds his counterpart from Casamance.
Many point to the lack of coordination between the different funding structures.
In response, the Minister of the Economy Amadou Hott detailed an emergency program, and launched an appeal to the private sector.
"
What we are proposing is to accelerate the creation of jobs and self-employment, to strengthen and expand vocational training and to perpetuate this dialogue between young people, the State and the private sector," to promote priority investments that create jobs ...
"
Even before the start of this presidential council, opposition officials - Ousmane Sonko from the Pastef party or Toussaint Manga from Abdoulaye Wade's PDS - had denounced
the president's “
admission of failure
”, after nine years at the head of the state.
This meeting was organized after the violent demonstrations in March, during which those under 35, who represent 76% of the population, expressed their frustrations.
An emergency plan of 450 billion FCFA (about 685 million euros), over three years has been announced.
Poles dedicated to youth employment and entrepreneurship will be set up in each department.
The head of state
also
promises
to recruit 65,000 young people across the country, starting in May.
Each year in Senegal, 200,000 young people enter the labor market, according to the Ministry of the Economy.
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Senegal
Youth
Macky sal
Employment and Work
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