Prime Minister Elijah Ngurare has urged young people to make effective use of social media, encouraging them to create content, build social media platforms, and adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to help Namibia achieve digital sovereignty.
While addressing his staff members on Monday, Ngurare emphasised that Namibia’s greatness should be measured by the talent and creativity of its people. He urged both the public and private sectors to embrace technological innovation as a primary driver for economic advancement. Ngurare emphasised the significance of AI, social media, and content creation as avenues for earning money and creating employment.
“Let us create our own Namibian social media platform and identify the young people who can help us achieve this. We want to ensure digital sovereignty. Let us create our own YouTube millionaires, let us empower our public and private institutions of higher learning to be on the table of research and development in the area of Artificial Intelligence,” he said.
He stated that Namibia should ensure that data protection, data storage, and data centres are managed by Namibians for Namibians and to preserve the country’s future.
Ngurare said the dream remains possible, adding that these matters will be addressed by the end of February, at the launch of the first-ever innovation conference for the public sector.
He further said that the government acknowledges the creativity of young people, adding that the “ingenuity you possess and the pride you have are significant. When we consider what is happening elsewhere, others are profiting from their content. Some are becoming millionaires from their content, with government support. Therefore, we too must do everything we can.”
Ngurare stated that the efforts toward youth empowerment have begun, highlighting the historic subsidised tertiary education programme, which he noted has been successfully launched. He also mentioned that the National Youth Development Fund has been established and is currently operational, indicating that youth enterprises are receiving collateral-free loans to generate employment for other unemployed youth, and encouraged young people to apply. -Nampa