In a recent conference held in TEDX University of Namibia, a young entrepreneur named Paulus Tangeni Muluna stated his strong opinion on how the future of Africa is in the hands of its’ youth. He uses a metaphor created by George Aide in which the youth are represented as cheetahs and the bureaucracy is represented as an old hippo. In this metaphor, Paulus complains about corrupt African leaders that are stopping the country from growing and affirms that he believes that the youth should take over the continent, finding innovative ways to confront this new era’s problems.

This information is backed up by data, such as the fact that Africa holds the youngest people in the word, it has over 200 million people between the ages of 15 and 24; Nigeria holding a population that is 56,9 % between the ages of 18 or younger and Uganda, 57% between the ages of 18 or younger. These are the people who if faced with the right education and support, will lead opportunities to create a brilliant future for Africa.

Many criticize when the youth, having so many opportunities in front of them, decide to look for central government jobs, even more so when they resort to begging for money. The conference speaker states that there is a 38% youth unemployment rate and promotes all those in need of a job, to look into entrepreneurship. The African Leadership University offers them courses and low cost preparation in order to support Africa’s better future.

Paulus believes that young people looking for government jobs is not creative, but instead obsolete and continues the old way of doing things. He insists on making a shift from old mentalities to new ones. His way of motivating the crowd could definitely mean a change in the way the young population stops depending on existing jobs and instead, takes advantage of the creative brains young people have to fix Africa’s many issues.

If you want to start living a new mentality, according to Paulus, you must follow 3 steps; 1 control yourself, 2 look for alternatives and 3. delete the situation giving tension.