Kikwete calls for solution to unemployment in region

By The Citizen Correspondent Kampala. President Jakaya Kikwete has said unemployment among the youth in Africa is the biggest challenge that needs urgent solutions to diffuse the ‘ticking bomb’.Addressing the annual international conference on the Great Lakes Region on Thursday, President Kikwete said unemployment among the youth was a result of the increasing number of young men who enter the job market annually. He was participating in a debate on gender violence in the Great Lakes Region on the first day of the conference held in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.The conference has brought together heads of state and government as well as senior government leaders from 11 countries of the Great Lakes Region.During the debate, the issue of unemployment among the youth came up as participants discussed about gender violence. “Unemployment among the youth is a big challenge that calls for joint solutions among leaders in the region,” said President Kikwete, adding that the problem should be treated as an urgent agenda. He called for urgent solutions to the social problem after some leaders had proposed to discuss the issue during the next annual international conference on the Great Lakes Region scheduled for 2013 in the Central African Republic. “This thorny issue doesn’t have to wait until the next conference. Solutions should start to be sought today and not after two years,” he told participants. Apart from President Kikwete, other leaders attending the conference are Presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Michael Sata of Zambia, Mwai Kibaki of Kenya, Pierre Nkurunzinza of Burundi and Francois Bozize of the Central African Republic.Other members of the Great Lakes Region are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo Brazaville, Rwanda, Angola and Sudan. Saturday, 17 December 2011 09:31 Source:http://thecitizen.co.tz/news/49-general-elections-news/18007-kikwete-calls-for-solution-to-unemployment-in-region.html