Tackling Youth Unemployment in  Africa

By Aisha Sambo

For millions of unemployed yet tech-savvy youth across Africa, increased connectivity is bringing tremendous opportunities. By tapping into the continent’s growing digital revolution, young entrepreneurs are using information and communications technology (ICT) to boost their own prospects. With 200 million people aged between 15 and 24 (the youth bracket), Africa has the youngest population in the world. According to the 2012 African Economic Outlook report prepared by experts from the African Development Bank (AfDB) amongst others, current trends indicate that the number of young people in Africa will double by 2045. When that time comes, it is worrisome to think that more than half of the population may have little to no skill or work experiences.

The story of Africa’s worrisome youth unemployment is often told alongside the story of the continent’s fast and steady economic growth. While Nigeria is one of fastest-growing economies in the continent, the unemployment rate for the country and other fast growing Africa economies is still generally high. Compared to the world average this can be saddening, and the problem is that in most African countries, youth unemployment “occurs at a rate more than twice that for adults,” notes the Africa Development Bank (AfDB). Young women feel the sting of unemployment even more sharply. The AfDB found that in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and all of those in North Africa, it is easier for men to get jobs than it is for women, even if they have equivalent skills and experience. It’s an open secret that Africa is facing an unemployment crisis. According to the World Bank, young people account for 60% of all African unemployed. In North Africa, the youth unemployment rate is an eyebrow-raising 30% almost the amount for one African country, Nigeria (33% unemployment rate). It is even worse in Botswana, the Republic of the Congo, Senegal, South Africa and several other African countries. Young people in Africa may find work, but most places neither pay good wages, help develop skills or provide a measure of long term job security.

A large number of Africa’s youth have no jobs or are underemployed. Faced with the prospect of joblessness, young people are taking their destinies into their hands by gaining skills that would enable them to thrive in the workplace. For example, a report by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and by Google shows that 31% of software developers in Africa were self-taught. This is a theme that plays out for most digital skills. With no help forthcoming, African youths are taking their destinies into their hands. Barriers are being broken using technology to find work and gain skills, and there are two major channels through which the skills gap in Africa is being closed:

Improving Formal Education and Access To It

We as a community truly need to improve on our schools, how schools are opened, the standards they should hold, and accountability. The best way for most African youths to gain skills still remain through formal education, whether through private schools, public schools, or vocational and technical training schools. However, even that comes with its challenges as one-third of youths between the ages of 12 and 14 are out of school, while almost 60% of youths between the ages of 15 and 17 are also out of school. Bringing gender into the equation paints an even sadder picture. 9 million girls between the ages of 6 and 11 will never go to school, setting them up for a lifetime of exclusion; those who might be able to afford an education face the challenge of access. According to Quartz Africa, 10 of the most populous countries in Africa have 740 universities serving more than 600 million people. Compare that to Latin America, where 1,834 universities serve a population of 434 million people. That means that without the ability to leave their countries for education, many African youths may not get a university education. Africa’s higher education systems do not necessarily have to go through a wholesale reinvention, nor do they require replication of models used in foreign continent. The temptation for such replication is usually what leads to curricula that is disconnected from the continent’s realities. After all, a university’s utility is in anticipating and solving legitimate dilemmas on ground. On the ground in Africa, the ingredients for more impactful education are already in place, and Higher education should be everyones business.  Education urgently needs tackling, this urgency warrants a learning methodology that does not wait for theory to set in before experimenting with solutions. Energetic, forward looking, and constantly wired into their surroundings, young Africans are fast learners by design so imagine what a teaching methodology of “learning by doing” could do for our youths. There should be a willingness to keep encouraging young Africans to directly try their hands at real world problems – in pursuit of real world solutions. We should harbour real experimentation methods in schools, African universities must be the beating heart of fully fledged agricultural, technological, industrial, economic and social ecosystems.

Using Technology to Learn, Learn Tech, Teach and Seek Jobs

From AltSchool Africa, to Ulesson, to Edukoya, these are just a few Edtech platforms. That have indeed patronage as smartphone penetration continues to increase across Africa. The coronavirus pandemic further accelerated its adoption as educational institutions across the continent were shut down. However, there are still two major problems with using Edtech platforms: affordability and accessibility. According to Blessing Abeng, Director of Communications at Ingressive for Good, high data costs, unreliable Internet connection, inconsistent or non-existent power supply, and lack of tech tools for practice are some of the challenges African youths face in gaining tech skills or acquiring an education through using technology. Without the need to be physically present, technology can provide technical and vocational skills to African youths. Abeng reveals that during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ingressive for Good partnered with Coursera to give scholarships to 5,000 people and help them learn skills to increase their earning power. AltSchool Africa is one of my most favourite success stories of 2021. Their goal is to achieve what nobody else has tried before; train tech talents for free and then certify them with a universally recognised certification. This would essentially make it the first developer certificate awarding institution in Africa. With regards to seeking jobs, ever tried putting out a job post on LinkdIn ? Try it, you’ll be shocked by how many Africans and Nigerians, depending on online platforms, seek for jobs. How effective job seeking is online for Africans is still a new and debatable concept to explore.

We are seeing more young people on the continent with tenacity and a strong sense of agency and purpose – the polar opposite of the African narrative that presents Africans as lacking agency. Today’s youth are fighting for – and in Nigeria have died for – the rights many people take for granted in their countries; the right not to be brutalised by police in Nigeria, the human rights and dignity of children in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the right to be protected from gender-based violence in Namibia. The #EndSARS protests in Nigeria is not the only one that unfolded in Africa, here have been at least seven other protest hashtags trending in other respective African countries, together prompting their own hashtag; #AfricaIsBleeding. The tenacity of today’s youth is brave and fearless, young Africans seizing opportunities, and beyond finding and creating opportunities, it’s important to remember to not just do it for yourselves but for other too.

Young Africans are preparing to create a culture where we all think to become opportunity makers, who help to create value for ourselves, the company’s we work for and the business we run or business we want to start. As a creative person my self, I depend a lot on my imagination and so I always start with the past and imagined the future. We should all consider what kind of opportunity markers we might become because beyond wealth and recognition, is our capacity to connect around each other’s better sides and bring out the best in each other. It’s easier said than done but I have a fantasy about the future the idea to reimagine the world where we all become opportunity makers. A future where opportunity makers will actively seek situations with people that are unlike them, a future where opportunity makers will have trusted relationships where they can bring the right team to solve problems better and faster to seize more opportunities. Finally, important to mention, you cannot create productive opportunity without a sense of purpose and we have a generational challenge, I wrote it and I’ve said it and I’ll write again, it’s not lack of jobs that is killing our youths but they lack to create a sense of purpose. I reimage a future where we start doing things not just to create progress but to create purpose. Remember whether recognised by the world or just a few, greatness comes from reaching out to people from those who go out of their way to be thoughtful & understanding, these are the unsung heroes.