What would it take to improve the economic possibilities of Africa’s grandchildren?

How do we improve the lifetime income of the next generation? In 1930, the famous economist John Maynard Keynes wrote his famous essay, Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren, imagining what economic progress might mean for future generations, and his predictions have come in handy. Nearly a century later, one of my favourite Economists Kristalina Georgieva raised the same questions in her essay. I realised I had been asking similar questions: what would it take to improve the economic possibilities of Africa’s grandchildren?

This question feels particularly urgent on our continent. Given that by 2050, one in every 4 people in the world is expected to be African. Africa is becoming the world’s youngest continent. And if this generation of children inherits low incomes, weak human capital, and limited assets, poverty will simply become intergenerational. So perhaps the better question is this: what is the alternative investment strategy, Africa can have to increase the prosperity of generations yet unborn?

Poverty is rarely an event. More often, it is inherited. A child born into a household with limited assets is more likely to attend lower-quality schools, experience poorer nutrition, enter lower-paying jobs, and eventually raise another generation under similar conditions. That is how poverty travels from one generation to the next.

For decades, most wealth literature assumed one model: men accumulated assets, men owned land, men built businesses, and men passed wealth to the next generation. Families have changed. Our economic assumptions have become outdated. We still speak as though every household has a single male breadwinner. Reality has moved on. Across Africa, we are seeing more female-headed households, more single mums and widows, women supporting unemployed spouses, and dual-income households becoming necessary because of inflation. Clearly, the household economy has changed. Our economic thinking has to.

Women’s economic empowerment is one of the fastest ways to increase the productive assets, human capital, and lifetime earnings of the next generation. If Africa is trying to create wealth for the next generation, why are we still treating women’s economic empowerment as a social programme instead of an economic growth strategy?

Every generation’s greatest capital investment begins inside households. It is where children are fed, education is financed, health is protected, and aspirations are nurtured. When women have economic power, they are not only improving today’s household income, they are increasing tomorrow’s productive capacity.

The real Generation Shapers

One development that particularly caught my attention this year came on Mother’s Day, when His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum directed that the official designation “housewife” be replaced with “Generations Shaper.” He recognised women’s potential to develop human capital.

Across decades of development research, one finding has remained remarkably consistent: when women control greater economic resources, households are more likely to invest in children’s education, nutrition, healthcare and overall wellbeing. Household resilience improves, child poverty declines, and future opportunities expand. Yet despite this evidence, we continue to underestimate one of the greatest missed opportunities in Africa’s development story: enabling women not merely to earn an income, but to build wealth.

The distinction matters because income sustains today’s household. Assets secure tomorrow’s household.

The Opportunity We Are Not Tapping: What Could Happen If More Women Built Assets?

When we look at women’s economic empowerment through the lens of assets rather than income, we begin to see the opportunities our economies are leaving on the table.

More women would contest elections. Political leadership is not simply about ambition; it is about having the financial assets, networks, and economic resilience to withstand the high cost and uncertainty of electoral politics.

More women would become shareholders, investors and even founders of financial institutions. Ownership creates influence. Those who own capital do not shape it, allocate resources and influence the decisions that determine who else gets access to opportunity.

More women-led businesses would grow beyond survival and into scale. Today, many women entrepreneurs dominate consumer-facing markets such as food, fashion, retail and care services, yet investment capital continues to flow disproportionately to sectors and business models that male investors more readily understand or have historically backed.

More women would also access debt financing. Across much of the financial system, credit still follows collateral. Land, property and other productive assets remain the currency of trust, yet these are precisely the assets that many women have historically been excluded from owning.

So Where Do We Go From Here?

If we accept that women’s wealth is one of the smartest investments we can make in improving the economic possibilities of future generations, then the question becomes: how do we deliberately build it? Fortunately, we do not have to start from scratch. Around the world, governments, development institutions and the private sector are already experimenting with solutions that are expanding women’s ownership of assets rather than simply increasing their incomes.

First, secure women’s ownership of productive assets.
For generations, wealth has been transferred through land, housing and businesses. Yet these remain the very assets many women struggle to own. Expanding women’s asset ownership therefore requires more than financial inclusion; it requires legal and institutional reform.

Some countries have tackled this head-on. Rwanda reformed its matrimonial and inheritance laws to give daughters and sons equal rights to inherit family property, significantly increasing women’s land ownership and strengthening agricultural productivity. Ethiopia’s land certification programme issued joint land certificates carrying the photographs of both husband and wife, a relatively simple administrative reform that substantially improved women’s tenure security and encouraged greater investment in farmland. Meanwhile, Ghana expanded what counts as collateral by allowing movable assets such as livestock, equipment and inventory to secure loans through its national Collateral Registry, making credit more accessible to women without land titles. Even technology is beginning to reshape ownership. Georgia’s blockchain-enabled land registry has strengthened property records and reduced opportunities for fraud during inheritance disputes.

Second, redesign how capital is allocated.
Gender-lens investing is beginning to challenge this reality by asking not only how much capital reaches women, but where it flows and who decides. The European Investment Bank now integrates gender considerations into its investment due diligence and supports funds with more diverse investment committees. Closer to home, Alitheia IDF has demonstrated that investing intentionally in women-led businesses across sectors such as agribusiness and consumer markets can help move enterprises from survival to scale. Globally, the 2X Challenge has created common standards that enable investors to measure whether their capital is genuinely advancing women’s economic participation.

Third, recognise care as economic infrastructure.
Perhaps one of the biggest contradictions in our economies is that we depend on care to build human capital, yet we rarely treat care as productive infrastructure.

Countries are beginning to think differently. Canada’s Child Benefit provides direct financial support to families raising children, recognising that caregiving contributes to long-term economic development. Chile’s Chile Crece Contigo programme combines early childhood services with affordable childcare, making it easier for mothers to remain economically active. In East Africa, Kidogo has transformed informal childcare into formal, profitable enterprises by training local “Mamapreneurs” to operate quality childcare businesses.

Nigeria is also beginning to move in this direction. The Nigeria Women in Leadership Coalition—comprising WIMBIZ, WISCAR, WILAN and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum—is advocating for the implementation of a standardised parental leave policy that provides sixteen weeks of paid maternity leave and fourteen days of paternity leave across both the public and private sectors. These reforms recognise that raising the next generation is not merely a private responsibility; it is an investment in the country’s future workforce.

Finally, build financial systems designed for women to accumulate wealth.
Women’s financial inclusion has improved, but financial inclusion alone does not necessarily translate into wealth creation. We also need financial ecosystems intentionally designed around women’s asset accumulation.

Pakistan’s First Women Bank demonstrates how financial institutions can be designed around women’s entrepreneurial needs. Here in Nigeria, Rising Tide Africa is building networks of female angel investors who are not only financing businesses but also mentoring the next generation of founders. At the global level, gender bonds issued through the International Finance Corporation are directing institutional capital specifically towards women-owned enterprises in emerging economies.

Final Thoughts

The economic possibilities of Africa’s grandchildren will ultimately be determined by the investments we choose to make today. Helping more women build assets may prove to be one of the smartest development strategies the continent has ever pursued.