The South African President Jacob Zuma has called on African leaders to invest collectively in its youthful population because they’re important stakeholders to the development of the continent.

According to Zuma, “The youths in particular have taken care in calling leaders to address issues of exclusion, impunity, poverty and unemployment. They are important stakeholders to us because Africa is a youthful continent which means that we are a continent that has a very bright future if we can invest collectively in our young people.

Zuma who was giving his address to participants at the World Economic Forum on Africa noted that although the world has witnessed an increase in social discontent amongst citizens globally, due to increasing alienation and exclusion, this is however not alien to the continent as well.

“We’re here to discuss vigorously the various issues of growth and development, mindful of the fact that opportunity to that growth must not be enjoyed only by a few. The global context has evolved since the last meeting in 2015, in the last two years we’ve seen a drop in commodity prices which affected a number of countries in Africa”, Zuma said.

The theme for this year’s World Economic Forum on Africa: Achieving inclusive growth through responsive and responsible leadership he added is therefore most relevant to the challenges facing the world which include weak economic growth, managing migration, global security as well as international graft and most importantly we should seek ways to adequately address how to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor in the continent.