Former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, has said local youths will soon benefit from millions of short-term jobs in construction, operation and maintenance to be created across  Africa.

While addressing the International Youth Day celebrations at the UN office in Nairobi, Raila said millions of Kenyan graduates from the Competence-Based Curriculum (CBC) system of education would benefit from jobs created under the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA).

He said PIDA jointly with the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) and New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) has identified 51 regional and continental infrastructure short-term projects that are expected to get underway soon. Such projects will mainly require skills emphasised by the CBC.

“Unemployment is by far the most pressing challenge for Governments in Africa to address,” he said at the end of the week-long event to mark this year’s  International Youth Day whose them is  “Transforming Education.” 

Raila, who is the African Union (AU) High Representative for Infrastructure Development in Africa, said the world is becoming more globalised, requiring that Kenya’s education and training system be reformed to prepare the youth so they could identify opportunities “and be able to respond effectively to derive benefit for themselves.”

“We must transform education to become a powerful tool to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the long term and in the short term re-skill our graduates to deliver the Big Four agenda championed by His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta,” he added.

He said the ongoing reforms in the education sector in the country today are in tandem with processes to explore the “Intersection between Education and Global Opportunities” within the broader context of Goal No. 4 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.