An Open Letter To The President Of Somalia On How To Solve Youth Unemployment

Mr President, I hope you are doing fine today and thank you for taking your time to read my letter.

Mr President, I write this letter with a broken heart and deep frustrations. The moment young people graduate from the various colleges they have nothing to do and become part of the statistics that contribute to unemployment figures.

Worse off are those that dropped out of school at various levels, as they struggle to break the cycle of poverty. These groups of people are languishing in the streets, Using bad addictive substances like khat Or Weed. And the cost of living is too high; I must say things are becoming unbearable.

I understand you have policies that contain reasonable projects aimed at eradicating escalating unemployment levels among the youth. As a country, we need to be thankful and grateful to have you as a president.

Your Excellency, we now live in a Somalia where people sell jobs and this is unacceptable as it discriminates against some deserving individuals and it has to be addressed. We live in a society where nepotism is taking its root.

Mr President, I have come up with some fresh ideas for your consideration when addressing problems facing the youth in Somalia today.

Firstly, increase employers support to open up job opportunities and review employment legislations that work against young people when it comes to getting employment in government institutions.

You may also wish to ensure that the current education system is aligned with the needs of our economy, local market labour information and make it motivating and inspirational.

Another thing is to urge young people to value work at all entry levels. I am saying this because there are some youths who overlook some jobs.

Creation of a welfare system that supports the youth to find training and employment opportunities is also very important.

There is also need to integrate entrepreneurship education into our schools’ core curriculum. This is paramount to combating youth unemployment.

It would do you no harm to mobilise entrepreneurs and business professionals to become role models for the youth and make them active participants in entrepreneurial programmes.

It is also imperative to support young entrepreneurs who have viable ideas and skills to create innovative initiatives with soft loans and other necessities.

Mr President, investment in youth employment will support the needs of a competitive and successful economy for many years to come. It will provide knowledge transfer from the aging workforce. I need not say that young people bring creativity, flexibility, high energy and an understanding of new and emerging technologies.

Mr President, I value your judgement, but ignoring the ideas I have raised here will see somalia rooted in underdevelopment.

It is said that an idle mind is a devil’s workshop, as such keeping the youth in unemployment will tempt them to channel their knowledge and energies into negativities that will frustrate your development agenda in the long term. You need to act now.

May Allah bless you, Mr President, as I wait for your action.

Regards,
Jebril Domenico(M.A),