The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved an African Development Fund (ADF) loan of UA 7.52 million (approximately US $10.5 million) and an ADF grant of UA 1.25 million (approximately US $1.74 million) for a total of about US $12.24 million for the Jobs for Youth Project in Malawi.

In a statement issued by the Bank, AfDB Resident Representative in Malawi, Andrew Mwaba, said the Jobs for Youth Project seeks to economically empower young women and men for improved employability in decent work and sustainable entrepreneurship in the country. The project is expected to create an estimated 17,000 jobs for the youth. The support comes at a time when the country faces a growing youth unemployment problem.

The project has been designed to address some of the challenges faced by the youth and will also help to build the capacity of national partners including civil society organizations to effectively plan, implement, monitor and evaluate youth employment promotion interventions in the country.

The project will be implemented over a period of four years starting in 2017 and will be coordinated through the Ministry of Labour, Youth and Manpower Development. It will build on the Higher Education Science and Technology Project financed by the AfDB Group, which was designed to support universities and vocational technical training centres by helping provide skills to enhance employability for graduates.

Mwaba added that the Jobs for Youth Project in Malawi is one of the first of its kind to be supported by the AfDB under the new Jobs for Youth in Africa strategy adopted by the Bank in May 2016, to tackle youth employment issues on the continent. For Malawi, this is yet another AfDB Group operation with a unique focus on empowering the youth, after the Agricultural Infrastructure and Youth in Agribusiness Project approved by the Board in September 2016.