The speaker of the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen, has tasked African nations with creating jobs and blocking revenue to secure the continent’s economic future.

Mr Tajudeen gave the charge at the opening of the eighth Annual African Network of Parliamentary Budget Offices conference in Abuja.

The theme of the week-long conference is ‘The Role of PBOs in African Parliaments’ Fiscal Oversight: Contribution to the African 2063 Development Agenda’.

The conference drew participants from Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, Cape Verde, Gambia, Somalia, Uganda, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Tanzania, Malawi, and Liberia.

The speaker said that Africa was at a crucial crossroads in its history, with a population of approximately 1.4 billion people, roughly one-sixth of humanity.

The lawmaker said that the African continent was young, growing, and brimming with high potential.

“Nigeria, as Africa’s most populous nation with more than 200 million people and a GDP of around $477 billion in 2022, carries a special responsibility in this African story.

“We are a continent of abundant resources and talented youth, and we have bold ambitions captured in the African Union’s Agenda 2063, which serves as the blueprint for the Africa we want. However, the path to realising this vision remains difficult,” he said.

According to him, economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa was recovering, although modestly, with the World Bank projecting an increase from 3.3 per cent in 2024 to 3.5 per cent in 2025.

“This is encouraging, but not yet sufficient to meet our development needs. Poverty remains widespread, with an estimated 464 million Africans living in extreme poverty as of 2024,” Mr Tajudeen said.

He added that unemployment and underemployment, especially among young people, were urgent issues.

“Each year, 12 million young Africans enter the labour market, yet only around three million formal jobs are created. This gap in opportunities highlights a potential demographic dividend that could turn into a demographic risk if we do not take action,” he warned.

Mr Tajudeen said that development strategies in various countries, including national and continental development plans, must be adequately reflected in government budgets and supported by robust oversight mechanisms.

He said that Africans looked to their parliaments to carefully align public spending with broader development objectives and to consider the voices of constituents in fiscal decision-making.

The speaker stated that, according to the African Development Bank, Africa lost more than $587 billion annually due to capital flight.

He stated that the money left the continent through corruption, illicit trade, mispricing, and profit shifting by multinational corporations, among other channels.

According to him, corruption alone was estimated to drain about $148 billion from Africa annually.

The speaker stated that Nigeria presented a cautionary example of both the challenge and urgency of oversight.

(NAN)