In the coming ten years the government of Ethiopia aims to facilitate the creation of twenty million jobs in different sectors.

By 2025 we strive to create 15 million jobs. And by 2030 we do our best to get to a point where we have 20 million jobs, “said Ephrem Tekle (PhD), Jobs Creation Commissioner of Ethiopia.

“The vision is to create 20 million jobs because there is this greater challenge of addressing the need of young people, which will require us to build the right set of skills,” he said.

Explaining on how the government plans to create the jobs, Dr. Ephram indicated that information technology including mobile technology is one of the sectors that is expected to generate many jobs for the growing number of you youth in Ethiopia.

He also stated that agriculture mainly irrigation based will be the major job creation area. Tourism, hospitality, miming and manufacturing sectors are also among the priority job creation areas identified by the Ethiopian government.

Currently two million youth in Ethiopia enter the job market every year meanwhile only half of them are getting jobs, according to the state agency report.

Some ten million youth are looking for job in Ethiopia, according to Dr. Ephrem, who spoke at the panel discussion on the sidelines of Fintech Africa Summit in Addis Ababa on Thursday.

In Ethiopia it is estimated that there are around 1.6 million civil servants (government employees) and some 1.9 million recruited by the private sector.