Former President John Mahama has advised that, the curriculum of University education in Africa needs to be re-engineered to stimulate accelerated development if the continent is to remain competitive in the global space of skills acquisition and training.

Mahama bemoaned that there is a mismatch between skills required by the job market and the current curriculum being used in almost all the universities in Africa

Speaking on the sidelines of the 53rd Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank in Busan, South Korea, John Mahama said churning out graduates of humanities for example in large numbers would not unlock the quest for accelerated industrialisation in Africa.

It was on the theme, “Accelerating Africa’s Industrialisation,” which is underpinned by the Bank’s High 5 strategy including light up and power Africa, feed Africa and improve the quality of life of Africans.

He added that stringent measures should be instituted to achieve a 70 by 30 parity in the sciences against the humanities to place the continent in position to advance economically, socially and in the fields of science and technology, which is the catalyst to reaching accelerated development of the continent.

He said Africa was ready to break into the legion of industrialised continent when the right pillars of development were activated and matched-up to the global competition even in the face of deployment of hi-tech artificial intelligence and robotics saying “we can start at our own pace and leverage to succeed.