I AM THE SYSTEM: Unemployment Crisis is a Manufactured Reality

By Sheida Mutuku – CEO, Woodside Africa Group LLC

My last public conversation on Africa’s development was focused on Woodside’s contribution through our $35B Africa Social Infrastructure Fund (ASIF) – an approach that bypasses the legacy financial systems that have worked against Africa’s prosperity for decades.

Our Social Infrastructure Division is well on track to build 50 large-scale developments across Africa, with 35 percent of the finances of the first project already pledged.

But the quest for Africa’s prosperity is multi-angled.

While infrastructure represents the brick and mortar of Africa’s prosperity, the youth are its soul. This poetic truth inspires and guides Woodside’s diversified business strategy. Africa’s future cannot be built on infrastructure alone; it must be built with the deliberate development of its young people.

Pillars of Africa

This thinking is the foundation behind Pillars of Africa (POA), a program and subsidiary under our Youth Development Division. POA is on a mission to orchestrate the development of one million young people across Africa.

To bring this mission to life, 500-Million-Stories (5MS) was born. The campaign is designed to fuel the phased implementation of the POA Strategic Plan 2025–2040, beginning with the I AM THE SYSTEM activation.

I AM THE SYSTEM challenges the status quo. It is a mindset affirmation and rallying call for the young people of Africa to demand of themselves nothing but the best.

It encourages a 500-million-strong generation to break psychological and structural barriers and to positively unleash their full talent force for the sake of Africa’s prosperity.

Also Read: An Education System That Manufactures Failure: A National Indictment of KCSE Outcomes

They are engines of prosperity. They demand that Africa work for them. They are the system.

As I often say, the young people are writing code for Africa, and their algorithm spits out anyone or anything that stands in their way.

I AM THE SYSTEM is both a mental and physical garb. It carries power, agency, pride, and clarity. It is an identity and declaration driven by those bold enough to claim it.

Fact: Africa’s long-standing youth unemployment crisis is a manufactured reality. The youth numbers, both current and projected, are finite and predictable. They are planable through deliberate, well-executed systems and programs. That this has not been done by respective African governments is just lazy and grossly irresponsible.

Also Read: How Unemployment Is Luring Kenyans Into the Russia–Ukraine War

POA, 500-Million-Stories, and I AM THE SYSTEM are integrated platforms setting precedent as strong illustrations of youth solutions for Africa.

As business leaders, it is our onerous moral duty to build collaborative platforms that develop Africa’s youth. The esteemed positions we hold in society are not for flex, nor are they decorative. They bear extremely heavy, God-given responsibilities, however one chooses to interpret it.

Africa’s youth are powerful. Each one of them must stand up and say, I AM THE SYSTEM.

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POA is on a mission to orchestrate the development of one million young people across Africa. PHOTO/FILE.