TRUE liberation of the African continent whose development is still low compared to America, Asia, Australia and Europe can be achieved quickly if the countries invest in improving the human resources sector.
This is the position President Samia Suluhu Hassan emphasised at the opening of the just-ended African Human Capital Heads of State Summit at the Julius Nyerere International Conference Centre (JNICC) in Dar es Salaam.
Achieving the goal of having productive human resources, according to the United Nations report on Sustainable Development, has made the Heads of African countries meet to discuss in order to come to a consensus on how to create productive human resources.
President Samia said that Africa should formulate policies that direct sufficient investment for the development of people instead of the development of things.
She said that Africa should increase investment in education from primary school to universities in order to find people with great knowledge who will use their skills to help eliminate poverty and ignorance in their communities.
The President added that investing from the time a child is born to ensure that he gets good nutrition to avoid stunting that reduces the child’s understanding and ability to read is something important to consider in bringing success.
President Samia asked her fellow leaders to brainstorm by coming up with concrete plans to develop human resources for their development and their countries by avoiding increasing the number of young people who are unskilled, unemployed and lack direction in life.
She said that the African continent cannot liberate itself economically if it does not invest in people before things.
The slogan at the meeting said “Stimulating the growth of the African economy: Increasing the productivity of young people through training and skills”.
Tanzania currently due to the results of the Population and Housing Census held in the country last year (2022) showed that there are 61,741,120 people, more than 40 per cent are young people.
The readiness of these proposals is evident in our country due to the existence of free education from kindergarten to form six while for higher education the government provides loans for our children to achieve that dignity.
Likewise, in the health sector, our country has a health insurance programme where many Tanzanians benefit through windows starting from 30,000/ year where a family with six beneficiaries can be treated while pregnant mothers and children under the age of five are treated for free.
The granting of loans to women, youths and people with disabilities has gained momentum in this country in councils, financial institutions, and non-governmental organizations in all parts of the country.
If our nation succeeds in preparing our children, by building them with great knowledge from the early stages, it is obvious that we will have scientists who will bring a technological revolution that will stimulate great and productive innovation in this country.
People with good health, education, knowledge and skills will be able to devote themselves to their work diligently and on time thus enabling development to be achieved by our communities as our continent of Africa has great resources that can bring about a revolution if the human resource sector is properly prepared by their governments.
We are grateful that our country, from the beginning, during the reign of the father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, then Mzee Ali Hassan Mwinyi, the late Benjamin Mkapa, Dr Jakaya Kikwete, the late John Magufuli and now Mama Samia, our leaders are making a great contribution in thinking to improve conditions in the African continent and the world at large.
It is not surprising to see that recently the leaders in Kenya, after their protests that led to the loss of several lives, President William Ruto and the leader of the opposition Mr Raila Odinga all of them need resolution of their conflict from a third part.
If you see that a leader outside the border of her country is needed for serious matters like resolving disputes, it is a sign that the person has a big vision and this was clearly seen at the meeting of African leaders for her desire of empowering people’s resources productively.
Speaking at the opening of the meeting involving sectoral ministers in Africa, the Vice-President, Dr Philip Mpango, said that African countries are facing a financial challenge to achieve the desired goal.
Recognising the challenge, he said there is a need for regional and African financial institutions to develop methods to finance their countries, to ensure that they have the development of human resources.
“Investment in human resources takes a long time and requires high cost but long-term patience,” said Dr Mpango.
Another suggestion, he said, is that the private sector is a major beneficiary of human resource development, so the meeting should be used to find ways to attract it to cooperate with the Government in achieving that.
He has asked training institutions in the African continent to be the catalyst for building the capacity of human resources that will be used to help strengthen the country’s resources.
“Unfortunately, Africa spends a large part of its money, ensuring that it imports skills from abroad to be used to increase the wealth of our internal resources,” he said.
Earlier, the Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Adolf Mkenda, said that the development of human resources is not the number of people in the nation, but what is invested in people to make them productive.
“Of these, education is important, health, nutrition and other things, but these are most important,” he said.
In addition, the minister in charge of education said that in order to strengthen the education sector which is the basis for the development of human resources, it is important to invest more in education starting from young children.
Contributing to the discussion, the Kenyan Minister for Finance, Professor Njuguma Ndung’u, said there is a need to have standard nutrition for African countries, in order to have strong young people with the ability to be industrious human resources.
However, the minister criticised educational institutions in Africa by saying that they are producing professionals who do not have the qualifications to be used as human resources.
Speaking about the empowerment of women in the development of human resources, the Minister of Gender, Children and Society from Ghana, Lariba Abudu has said that education, health and entrepreneurship are the important foundations for that.
“I can confirm that all the women here are scholars and they continue to study because studying is a process,” said.
In that, she noted that when a female child is educated, it is good to educate the elders as well, with the logic that they all depend on each other.
Minister Abudu stressed the importance of making education accessible to all regardless of disability, gender and anything that is seen as an obstacle to education for a person.
“We should introduce IT in our schools, we in Ghana have special IT rooms in many of our schools, this will help produce people with various skills,” said.
The implementation of what is being discussed by the heads of African countries is important in achieving a nation with knowledge that will get development because all necessary conditions including the policy to improve the human resources sector are already in place in this country.
