World Bank President Ajay Banga said it plainly at a jobs conference in March: the biggest development challenge facing the world right now is not debt, not shrinking aid, not technology gaps. It is the urgent need to create enough jobs for young people in developing economies. Over the next 10 to 15 years, around 1.2 billion young people across developing countries will reach working age, but only about 400 million jobs are expected to be created to meet them.
Africa sits at the centre of this challenge. The World Bank projects that sub-Saharan Africa alone will add 620 million people to the labour force by 2050, making it the fastest-growing workforce region on the planet. While Europe, China, Japan and much of the developed world are wrestling with ageing populations, Africa has something they increasingly lack: youth, and lots of it.
Whether that becomes a gift or a pressure point depends entirely on what happens next. "If these young people do not find work, the pressures on migration, on fragility, on political systems will not remain contained within borders," Banga warned. "If they do, then this demographic shift becomes one of the most powerful engines of global growth the world has ever seen."
The talent is not the problem. The current generation of young Africans is showing up in global tech firms, medicine, finance, research and venture-backed startups in ways previous generations simply could not. What is missing is enough attractive opportunities at home to keep them there.
A recent Afrobarometer survey found that more than half of African youth are considering emigrating for better economic opportunities abroad. That number tells its own story, and the question it raises is not whether Africa has what it takes to grow. It is whether the conditions for that growth will be built in time.
Originally published by African Business.