As Africa continues to develop in the coming decades, a new prosperity will mean its youth will find work at home and will no longer face "watery graves" in the Mediterranean during perilous crossings to Europe, Italy's finance minster Giovanni Tria said on Thursday.
Currently, 70 percent of Africa's population is aged under 30, Tria said during talks in Rome with African Development Bank president Akinwumi Adesina.
"While each year 10-12 million young people enter the jobs market there are only 2-3 million positions available," Tria said.
"But the future for young Africans is not a watery grave at the bottom of the Mediterranean," Tria underlined.
Africa's economy makes up just 3 percent of world GDP currently but it is constantly growing, propelled by the "powerful driver" of new technologies, Tria noted.
"Africa is the area of the world to watch in the next few decades," he said.
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