Young Africans need to understand that no other person will be a driver for Africa's socio-economic prosperity and development except themselves, according to Bening Wiisichong Ahmed, secretary-general of the Pan African Youth Union.
"Therefore we need to bring our ingenuity, we need to acquire the needed skills. We need to be able to hold our own African systems accountable, and also make proposals, alternative proposals on mechanisms and architectures that will be able to drive Africa's progress and prosperity," he says.
There is a need to "focus attention national and continental development," but this doesn't come without challenges.
"The biggest impediment to all this is the kind of Eurocentric or Western-centric kind of narrative that comes to us in terms of what is the definition of quality of life, and that all is anchored on the education and the kind of acculturation that we are currently experiencing," he explains.
Speaking to the African youth, Wiisichong Ahmed calls on Africans "to be inward-looking," "to be innovative" and "to bring our sense of ingenuity to bear on the progress and development of Africa."
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