The Secretary-General of the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) has urged African youth to improve from being consumers of digital content to creators.

John Omo asked ecosystem players to upskill and train the youth, particularly in Africa, to not only interact with gadgets as consumers but also as producers.

He was speaking at the Digital Talent Summit co-hosted by Huawei and the Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) on Sunday in Barcelona, Spain in a lead-up to the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023 held in Spain from Monday, February 27.

Huawei will partner with UNESCO in its commitment to enhancing learning in developing countries in Africa like Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Vicky Zhang disclosed that the company is proud to be joining forces with UNESCO to better deliver enhanced learning experiences in these countries through the use of technology.

“Getting the right education is often the key to success in life. As a major player in the technology sector, Huawei feels it is responsible for providing technical skills in all parts of the world, trying our best to include as many people as possible,” she said.

Zhang disclosed that Huawei started the Seeds for the Future program in Africa to make a significant social impact, inspire and help students find new solutions for the future ICT development of beneficiary countries and aid their rapid development.

Seeds for the Future in Ghana

Last year in Ghana, the Seeds for the Future program benefitted 50 female tertiary students.

Beneficiaries from Ghana paired with students from other countries like Sweden, Finland, Norway, Baltics and Iceland to participate in a Tech4Good Competition focused on providing innovative and sustainable solutions to societal problems.

The team from Ghana, during the competition, came second with their Save a Land, Save a Life project aimed at fighting illegal mining in the country.

The program which was focused on improving the digital skills capacity of students also sought to ensure that no one is left behind in the digitalization journey hence the allocation of all slots in to women.

For the past two years, Huawei's Seed for the Future program in Ghana has recorded a 100 per cent female participation rate gaining national recognition.

The Minister of Communications and Digitalization last year, commended Huawei Ghana for developing a strong talent foundation for the country and promoting more female participation in STEM.

Don't just consume but create as well

The ATU is a specialised organ of the Africa Union in the field of ICT, whose mandate is to promote communications development in Africa for universal access.

John Omo explained that the majority of the youth on the continent still don’t produce the digital content they consume.

They are absorbing content on TikTok and the like but are not being creative, he explained.

He said, “We need to ensure the ecosystem encourages whatever comes through video apps also contributes towards creativity.

"This is so that it’s not just absorbing videos forever, but also encouraging the youth to have a creative mind, to develop their own content rather than only being consumers of content.’’

According to Omo, ATU’s vision for Africa is a continent that is empowered and able to participate actively in the global information society. It is, therefore, crucial that African youth have access to global opportunities.

He noted that Africa is a youthful continent, accounting for over 60% of Africa's population. By 2030, young Africans are expected to constitute 42% of global youth.

Within the African context, he said the challenges are much greater, with no strong network of angel investors, not a lot of research grants available, weak training capacities in many institutions, and limited commercialisation support available in universities.

As a result, ATU believes a supportive ecosystem can help youth overcome these challenges.

“It will take all of us working together to create an ecosystem that ensures anybody, any youth with a creative mind can get an opportunity anywhere.

"We have seen so much silo working in Africa – we need to build an alliance of some sort so that we don’t work in silos.

"There’s so much duplication of resources, there’s so much wastage of resources and nowhere is this more apparent than Africa.

"I don’t know at what time we’ll stand up and say ‘enough is enough’; let’s work together so that we have better, bigger and more impactful experiences for our youth.”

He stated that ATU is committed to working with everybody in the ecosystem to ensure the youth get the right opportunities.

“When you invest in the youth…you are investing in your future or that solution that will solve a problem that we have. We must ensure youth have the skills, networks and ecosystem support necessary to achieve their potential,” he said.