How can Africa Harness its Demographic Dividend?
Extract from The Africa Debate 2022 Report
Africa’s people are one of the continent’s greatest strengths, but without sufficient investment in skills, jobs and financial inclusion the continent’s rapidly growing population could undermine the region’s development. With a current median age of 19.7, Africa is the youngest continent globally and expected to be home to over 2 billion people by 2050, representing 1/3 of the global workforce . Harnessing the power of Africa’s youth is a regional and global priority with significant repercussions for economic growth, digital transformation, and global security.
Upskilling Africa’s Youth
Strive Masiyiwa, Founder and Executive Chairman, Econet Group
For companies targeting long-term growth in the region, investing in skills is a must. In the eyes of Strive Masiyiwa, Founder and Executive Chairman of the telecoms giant Econet, “having young people is not enough, we have to have skilled young people”. In conversation with Invest Africa CEO, Karen Taylor, Masiyiwa emphasised the importance of investing in science and technology if Africa is to compete with the likes of China and India. This was echoed by Charles Murito, Regional Director, Sub Saharan Africa, Government Affairs & Public Policy for Google, who called on governments and businesses to invest in technical and vocational training as well as colleges and universities, citing the Learning Lions programme in Kenya as an example of using remote learning to improve broad-based digital skills.
Embedding Life-Long Learning
Participating businesses also highlighted the need to build more robust education systems from early years up through to adult learning. Where governments must lead the way in setting national curricula and investing in core education, there is plenty of scope for private companies to support life-long learning across the continent. 4G Capital for example is a neo-bank which provides training alongside micro-loans to business owners in the informal sector, filling the adult education gap with courses in record keeping, budgeting and client centrality. The company’s CEO, Wayne HennessyBarrett points to 4G Capital’s high repayment rates as evidence that this approach to continuous skills development creates wealth for the continent’s MSMEs. At a continental level, Afreximbank and the African Development Bank have demonstrated the importance of investing in a skills base for new growth sectors through partnerships with leading institutions in the creative sector with the leadership from both institutions emphasising the importance in those areas where Africa has a comparative advantage.
Investing in Jobs
Just as important to capacity building as training and education itself is building an enabling environment that allows people to harness their skills to create wealth and jobs. To truly unlock growth at the scale Africa needs to outstrip its population explosion, Africa will need to take a continental approach focused on regional connectivity. For Hennie Heymans, DHL’s SubSaharan Africa CEO, the key is unlocking the potential of Africa’s 44 million SMEs. “If we can get those SMEs to start trading beyond their borders and demystify that process, that will an enormous enhancement” he explains. This calls for a continental approach to unlock barriers to trade and transform the continent’s economies from exporting primary goods to trading value added products. According to Chinelo Anohu, Senior Director of the AfDB’s Africa Investment Forum, only by investing in manufacturing and processing will Africa successfully be able to transition “from dependency to productivity”.
Left to right: Charles Murito, Regional Director, Sub Saharan Africa, Government Affairs & Public Policy, Google; Hennie Heymans, CEO, Express, Sub-Saharan Africa, DHL
As the largest employer across the continent, developing Africa’s agricultural sector beyond subsistence farming to enable countries to start exporting agricultural goods, will be key to developing a growth strategy that enhances people’s lives and creates jobs. This is why Gary Vaughan-Smith, Chief Investment Officer of SilverStreet Capital, invests exclusively across the agricultural value chain with a focus on upskilling smallholder farmers. In recognition of mounting appreciation of the importance of the sector, Mohammed Dewji, Founder and President of one of Tanzania’s largest companies, MeTL Group, stated that he sees agriculture as the key to unlocking Africa’s full potential and plans to make a $2 billion investment in the sector calling on regional leaders to focus on “growing our own food, feeding our own people, and exporting it to the world.
