The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, has described the japa syndrome as “a big loss” for Nigeria and other African countries, stressing that the continent is losing its best talents as a result of the development.
He also emphasized that what Africa’s youth need is not token handouts disguised as empowerment schemes but access to real capital that can enable them to build sustainable businesses and wealth.
Adesina made this known while speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday, April 10, 2025. He called for a shift in how governments across Africa, including Nigeria, approach youth development.
He pointed out that the continent is sitting on a goldmine of human potential, with over 465 million people between the ages of 15 and 35, yet this demographic asset is being underutilized due to poor investment in human capital and lack of access to finance.
Adesina, who previously served as Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture, made a passionate case for changing the narrative around youth empowerment.
“Young people don’t need freebies; they don’t need people saying: ‘I just want to give you an empowerment programme’. They have skills, they have knowledge, they have entrepreneurship capacity, they want to turn their ideas into great businesses.
“What young people need is not those empowerment programmes; they need capital, they need you to put your money at risk on their behalf,” he stated.
He criticized the growing trend of offering youths small cash handouts in the name of empowerment, stressing that such approaches do not translate into long-term solutions. Instead, he advocated for mechanisms that allow young people to access credit, scale their ideas, and contribute meaningfully to the continent’s economic growth.
According to him, the potential of young Africans is immense, but the lack of belief in their abilities and the unwillingness to invest in them is creating a situation where the continent’s best minds are migrating abroad in search of better opportunities—a phenomenon popularly known in Nigeria as “Japa.”
“In the case of young people and the japa syndrome, it’s a big loss for us,” Adesina said,
He stressed that the future of African youth should not be outsourced to foreign countries.
“I do not believe that the future of our young people lies in Europe; it doesn’t lie in America, it doesn’t lie in Canada, Japan or China; it should lie in Africa growing well, growing robustly and able to create quality jobs for our young people,” he asserted.
