Titus N
Manuel

Today, I want to engage the youth in key positions and those who have been unemployed for a while but are still fighting to build a future for themselves. 

We are all aware and talking about the high rate of unemployment among the youth which is becoming an alarming concern. It is not a topic you would want to talk about due to its sensitivity and how badly it is affecting our families. 

Despite all that, I still want to look at some of the sub-conscious causes and deliberate on how we could consolidate the need for employment with the conscious will to serve the employed and unemployed youth as well as all stakeholders.

I have observed that in Namibia we have a culture of wanting to be served, rather than serving others. 

It is that background that contributes to the unemployment rate: Unemployment is a serious matter affecting the youth, many youths have acquired qualifications and still sitting at home with everyone blaming the government for not providing them with jobs. 

That already is a sign of wanting to be served rather than serving others. We want the government to serve us by employing all graduates. It is right! It is our government after all. 

My question is what are we doing in our community also to address unemployment? I have observed parents who sit with their children and just gossip about how they had hope that their child would graduate and get a job instead of providing wisdom that now that their children did not secure a job what are other alternatives available in the market?

This is also another sign of wanting to be served.

Moreover, youth are the ones holding key positions in the government. These positions can mobilise resources, develop programmes that can help the youth within their respective regions and support the entrepreneurial aspect of the region. What are we doing when we are employed in such positions to ensure that we create opportunities for the youth who are graduating to get inspired so that they can be motivated to start participating in the economic development programmes of the country? 

I want to tell the youth in Namibia to develop a passion to serve our community. After listening to Haimene Ndahambelela, a motivational speaker who spoke about serving with passion, at the Kavango youth summit in Rundu on 3 June 2023, I realised at some point when we are pointing fingers at the government the other four fingers are pointing towards ourselves.

 I challenge all the youths working in key positions with a mandate to support youth activities, the economy and entrepreneurship in the government to become more innovative to develop programmes that would support the unemployed youth. 

To the unemployed youth, keep researching what is lacking in our country, develop proposals and try to start small projects and businesses at the community level, keep knocking on doors that you think have what you need for your projects to grow and one day the right door will be opened for you and you get the support you need.

Hence fostering the culture of entrepreneurship should be the centre of all our initiatives. 

The government should continue to develop entrepreneurship programmes that educate, inform, and empower the youth to start serving with purpose in the community they live by either creating businesses or projects and such opportunities should be extended to regions and rural areas as well. 

Entrepreneurship is instrumental as we fight to address unemployment in our country. 

We need to be intentional and push ourselves to do more than our life’s limitations. We need to identify problems within our society and work toward finding solutions and hence once we start serving with passion we are surely going to be rewarded for what we bring to the table - It starts with us. Qualifications and knowledge without an action plan are not enough. 

Any person with a degree has acquired knowledge and competency enough to start doing something that can help to lay a foundation where a brighter future shall be built. This goes beyond having the ability to ensure you are polished to be the best candidate in interviews to secure a job or to start something for a living while you plan for a brighter future ahead. 

Sometimes even getting a job in the field which you did not study for but just to lay a foundation for the future ahead is a good start.

Sitting at home and waiting for a few applications you submitted for employment is not enough. The employed youth with the mandate to develop youth programmes but doing little or nothing about it should also be condemned. That is being lazy and unproductive! 

While you are searching for a job also engage in community development, think of a business to start, attend events with potential benefits be it seminars, community meetings, business or conferences just keep yourself relevant and serve the community. As the employed youth, let us share information, and advocate information communication technology and use it to the advantage of the unemployed youth.

Youth development officers advocate to serve as fundraisers for the youth projects, serve as a resource centre within your respective regions and also mobilize resources for the youth. Let us help each other let’s put our pride, ego, political differences and tribal aside.

 The nation needs us to work together, with all the stakeholders, government, youth, NGOs, private sector, The honourable and the whole community we need a culture of entrepreneurship. At the same time, we need a culture of serving each other, we should all serve whenever necessary to build our beautiful Land of the Brave called Namibia. 

*Titus N Manuel is the chief operations officer at Nandose Business Consultants and author of Entrepreneurship Revolution - Applied Guide to Entrepreneurship and Strategies for Success.

Email: nandosebusiness@gmail.com