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Six Questions: Minister of Labour Henry Mussa

Malawi’s Minister of Labour Henry Mussa talks to us on what government is doing to deal with rising levels on unemployment in the country, especially among the youth.

Mussa: Government will work with the private sector to create jobs
Mussa: Government will work with the private sector to create jobs

Q1. What policies has government put in place to address rising levels of unemployment?
A1. We want to bring a revolution whereby within three years this issue should have been significantly reduced. Our focal point is the establishment of community technical colleges which will be churning out graduates skilled in job and business opportunities creation. Not everyone can get employed, that’s why we want people, especially the youths, to get these skills in order to significantly contribute to this cause. We also want to revolutionise the agriculture and mining sectors so that there is tangible value addition to finished products through which people can get jobs as salesmen, accountants, cashiers or any other related job. This will also be achieved by, among others, enhancing the Green Belt Initiative so that people produce more crops for sale. Mind you, this initiative shall require skilled labour due to its intended purposes. But everything starts with the youths who are more energetic and productive.

Q2. What is government’s policy on youth employment?
A2. Government has prioritised youth development through the ministries of youth, labour and manpower development and education. We are talking of establishing community technical colleges and we want them to go through the colleges to national technical colleges for either a diploma or a degree. These synergies have been developed to make sure that they get qualifications of higher standard. This is also because we realise that not all shall be absorbed in the labour market because the space is limited; some will end up setting up their own medium and small scale businesses. It’s a revolution since these colleges will be rolled out in constituencies.

Q3. Does government have the capacity to do this?
A3. The money is there and cooperating partners are all excited with this arrangement and there’s a lot of support both technically and financially.

Q$. How are you intending to address youth unemployment through agriculture?
A4. Paramount to this is the Green Belt Initiative which is being approached at a commercial and industrialisation level. We are not talking about shovels, hoes and picks, but commercial farming involving irrigation that needs engineers, electricians, plumbers, mechanics and ICT experts. We are also encouraging value addition; the processing of crops into finished products. Our aim is to reach a point where we will stop importing things like chicken feed, tomato sauce and juices.

Q5. Have you considered empowering the youths through mining in addressing youth unemployment?
A5. The youths will be trained as artisans so they do proper mining. Malawi recently completed the mapping up of potential mining sites which has produced a lot of potential areas. We will need artisans to process these minerals into finished products and these will be trained in the colleges I talked about.

Q6. What’s government’s policy on youth labour migration?
A6. Labour migration is important, but it must be skilled labour. What the previous government did was just a mixed bag and we had to stop it because we saw no reason of exporting unskilled labour such as cooks, guards and garden boys, no wonder they are being exploited there. But we have now put a legal framework, which was lacking in the previous arrangement, and through this we shall know all about any youth expatriate as well as ensuring that they are skilled labour who will be able to use part of their proceeds to invest back home because this is how governments all over the are benefiting from expatriate human resources.

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