President John Dramani Mahama has warned that Africa’s growing youth population could become a challenge if the continent fails to create enough opportunities for its young persons.
Speaking at the Africa Business Forum 2025 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, President Mahama called for an urgent need for African nations to add value to their abundant natural resources as a key strategy for addressing high youth unemployment rates.
He cited Ghana’s potential to process 500,000 tonnes of cocoa as an example, pointing out that increasing local production and processing could significantly reduce unemployment and stimulate the economy.
“We have the capacity to process almost 500,000 tons of cocoa, but we are not processing that much. We are processing about 200,000 tons, because COCOBOD that needs to be restructured believes that it gets immediate foreign exchange when the beans are traded and we sell forward and so they get the money in advance before we even export one bean.
“But bringing the value addition home will be bringing jobs back so that our young people can get jobs to do, especially putting that processing in the areas where the cocoa is grown. And that is why we are excited about the initiative between Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, because together we produce about 80 percent of the world’s cocoa. And so if we coordinate and work together, not only in terms of improving production, will create more jobs for our young people.”
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