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Hargeysa, Somaliland, May 29, 2010 (SL Times) – Many of Somaliland’s
young people are expressing concern about the lack of employment
opportunities in the country. Some of them bring up the promise made by
Somaliland President Dahir Rayale Kahin in 2003 when he was campaigning
for President that if elected he would give a high priority to job
creation, and how that promise was not fulfilled.
One young man said, “let alone creating new jobs, the government ended
existing jobs such as the jobs lost when the ministry of finance
terminated the little financial assistance it used to give to SOOYAAL’s
training center ”.
The current voting cards distribution throughout the country has created
some jobs in the public sector for the unemployed youth. The election
season usually marks an increase in the number of people employed by
political parties during their campaigns. The downside to this is that
the political parties open offices in neighborhoods, and in order to get
support and votes from the youth they lure them into these offices by
providing them with plenty of the narcotic drug Qat to chew.
Somaliland has experienced an up tick in employment by the private
sector. But even in this sector, employment opportunities are hampered
by the fact that private enterprises often give more importance to the
clan affiliation than merit and qualifications of the job applicant.
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