The Minister of Youth Affairs, Mohamed O. Bangura on Saturday, 6th October 2018 travelled with a team of five innovative and energetic young Sierra Leoneans to the YouthConnekt Africa Summit in Kigali, Rwanda.
The ticket fare and all other arrangements incidental to their travel were fully funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Sierra Leone, with no costs on Government .
The Minister of Youth Affairs travelled with two young Sierra Leonean Innovators, the Deputy Commissioner of the Youth Commission-Emmerson Kamara
and one young entrepreneur.
The purpose of the summit was to create the platform for young leaders across Africa to discuss on the Theme: “Connecting Youth for Continental Transformation.” A total of 2500 delegates from across Africa attended.
The participants were policy makers, development partners, financiers, youth innovators, entrepreneurs and other professionals from various field of studies.
This year’s summit places young people at the center of the conversations. The participants are expected to bring home actionable policies that will guide youth mainstreaming policies.
Ministers of Youth from across Africa attended the summit with a focus to put youth issues top of the Continent’s priorities to tap from the demographic dividend.
This move, according to the Youth Minister, is strongly in line with President Julius Maada Bio’s New Direction Agenda of not only placing youth issues top of his priorities, but treating same as a security and development challenge.
“I am here to represent all Sierra Leonean youth with the hope of mainstreaming those policies for national development,” Minister Bangura told journalists, adding that this will continue to keep the New Direction in the Right Direction with the right policies.
As a ministry, he said, he will ensure that they legislate and domesticate all policies that will create job, provide the skills and better the living standards of the youth.