Participants in the Youth Connect Africa summit in Accra have called on governments on the continent to create opportunities for young people to lead in economic integration policies and deal-breaking initiatives.

Also, they urged governments to mobilize trade financing for young entrepreneurs to enable them to participate in the larger African market.

These were contained in a communique issued by the over 3,000 delegates who attended the summit in person and 15,000 young people who joined virtually.

The communique was read by the president of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Mr. Emmanuel Yiadom Boakye, at the end of the three-day summit last Friday.

The communique called for investment in capacity building for women to create leadership champions, entrepreneurs, and job creators.

They also asked for an investment in building logistics infrastructure and systems that would enable young entrepreneurs to quickly jump onto the opportunity created by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

In addition, the youth wanted their governments to “make Africa Beyond Aid a reality and not a mere statement through Intra Africa collaboration across sectors”.

It said the youth could also lead the way out of unemployment if production corridors along value chains of the continent’s commodities and services were created.

That, the communique said, could be made easy through prioritizing and harmonizing the accreditations for different professions across the continent, in addition to the promotion of industry-relevant education.