Dakar 2026: Ndiaye calls for jobs for trained young people
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on APS
Mamadou Diagna Ndiaye, president of the organising committee for the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, is calling for jobs to be created for young people trained during preparations. He wants to better link training, entrepreneurship and funding so these skills can be retained in Senegal, according to the APS.
The president of the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (COJOJ), Mamadou Diagna Ndiaye, on Monday called for job opportunities to be created for young people trained during preparations for the Games. He was speaking in Dakar, according to the Senegalese Press Agency (APS), at a ceremony to hand the national flag to the 136 Senegalese athletes selected for the competition.
Mamadou Diagna Ndiaye warned that these skills risked being lost to other countries for lack of opportunities in Dakar, Thiès and Ziguinchor. He called for better coordination between training, employment, entrepreneurship and funding, so that young people could stay in Senegal and develop their activities there.
The COJOJ and the International Olympic Committee have established the Dakar 2026 Learning Academy, an intensive training programme designed to strengthen young people’s skills and help them enter the workforce. Ndiaye also mentioned partnerships with international banking institutions and the SIRA programme, which focuses on skills for innovation, resilience and aspirations.
The call came the day after President Bassirou Diomaye Faye handed the flag to the athletes on 26 October at a ceremony where Ndiaye spoke. Faye also set Senegal the goal of successfully staging the Games, which are scheduled to take place in Dakar in 2026 (the flag handover to the 136 athletes and Faye’s goal for Senegal to succeed).
