Youth Day Exposes Liberia’s Jobs Challenge | News

Liberia’s celebration of International Youth Day has exposed the widening gap between the country’s large youthful population and the limited economic pathways available to turn their skills, ideas and ambitions into jobs, businesses and sustainable livelihoods.

The warning emerged Wednesday at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex Gymnasium, where government officials, development partners, technology stakeholders and young Liberians gathered under the theme, “Unified Knowledge, Shared Futures: Liberians Innovating through Digital Partnerships.” The occasion also marked the relaunch of the YouthConnekt Liberia Chapter.

The discussions placed youth employment, digital skills, entrepreneurship and access to opportunity at the center of Liberia’s development debate, with speakers arguing that annual celebrations and short-term training programs will not be enough to address the structural challenges facing young Liberians.

Minister of Youth and Sports Cllr. Cornelia Wonkerleh Kruah delivered one of the strongest messages, challenging the long-standing description of young people as merely “leaders of tomorrow.”

“You are not the future of this country. You are the present,” Kruah told the gathering.

She said Liberia’s youthful population makes youth development a national economic priority and warned that decisions being made today on policies, legislation and national budgets will determine the opportunities available to young people for decades.

“Today is not a celebration. Today is a reckoning,” Kruah declared, challenging government and development stakeholders to ask each year what concrete progress has been made for the majority of Liberia’s population.

Kruah pointed to the loss of young talent through migration and the struggles of young people remaining in Liberia without adequate economic opportunities as major concerns. She said many young Liberians are trapped in an informal economy without sufficient support to expand their businesses or develop sustainable livelihoods.

The Minister said the Ministry of Youth and Sports is therefore focusing on creating “pathways” that can take young people beyond training and exposure toward technical assistance, business development and actual economic opportunities.

She cited YouthConnekt as one initiative intended to provide such pathways, while encouraging young people to take advantage of internships, vacation employment and skills-development programs.

The keynote speaker, Mohammed Kerkulah, Chief Empowerment Officer of Gonet Academy, reinforced the message, arguing that Liberia’s problem is not a shortage of talented young people but a shortage of systems capable of connecting their talents to opportunity.

“Potential is everywhere. Opportunity is not,” Kerkulah said.

He called for Liberia to move “from youth programs to youth pathways,” arguing that training certificates, competitions and workshops should ultimately lead to jobs, businesses and income.

“Young people cannot be expected to have experience when they are not given opportunities to acquire it,” he said, urging stronger links between schools and workplaces through internships, apprenticeships and technical and vocational education.

Kerkulah also placed digital transformation at the center of Liberia’s youth employment strategy, urging young people to move beyond consuming digital content and instead use technology to create businesses, solve local problems and access markets beyond Liberia.

“Do not simply bring young people into the room. Bring them into the decision,” he said.

He urged the government to become an “orchestrator of opportunity” by investing in digital infrastructure, skills development and entrepreneurship, while calling on the private sector, financial institutions and development partners to provide jobs, mentorship and market access.

Kerkulah warned that Liberia’s young people do not need another cycle of promises.

“Liberia’s young people do not need another generation of promises. We need a generation of pathways,” he said.

The digital opportunity agenda received further backing from Liberia Telecommunications Authority Commissioner Clarence Massaquoi, who disclosed that the LTA, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, has connected 88 of 156 targeted public high schools to high-speed internet.

He said the initiative forms part of the government’s broader objective of connecting every public school to high-speed internet by 2030.

Massaquoi also announced a new partnership between the LTA and the Ministry of Youth and Sports to establish digital hubs across Liberia’s 15 counties. The initiative is expected to benefit approximately 750 young people during its first year.

Representing UN Resident Coordinator Christine Mutoni, UNFPA’s Dr. Mady Biaye commended the government for placing young people at the center of national development and conveyed a message from UN Secretary-General António Guterres highlighting young people’s aspirations for dignity and opportunity amid economic uncertainty, digital exclusion and climate-related challenges.

The International Youth Day commemoration therefore served as more than a celebration. It exposed a central economic challenge confronting Liberia: how to convert a youthful population from a demographic statistic into a productive economic force.

The message from the gathering was that Liberia’s youth agenda must increasingly be measured by jobs created, businesses established, digital opportunities expanded, skills converted into income and young people given a meaningful role in national decision-making.

As YouthConnekt Liberia begins its new chapter, its success will ultimately depend on whether it can help young Liberians transform knowledge into skills, skills into livelihoods, ideas into enterprises and digital access into economic opportunity.