Africa’s youthful population has maintained a steady growth but the world’s second most populated continent is failing to equip its young people with skills needed to compete in a knowledge-based, borderless, global labour market.
“The average match between education and the skills needed by businesses is worse in Africa than in the rest of world. Almost 16 million young Africans are currently facing unemployment,” Mo Ibrahim Foundation, a non-governmental agency that focuses on the critical importance of leadership and governance in Africa, said in a 2019 report titled ‘Africa’s Youth: Jobs or Migration’.
“Furthermore, there is a weak link between higher education levels and better job prospects,” the report said.
It added that only about half of those who would qualify for lower secondary education in sub-Saharan Africa are enrolled.
Youths account for 60 percent of all African unemployed, according to the World Bank. In North Africa, the youth unemployment rate is 30 percent. It is even worse in Botswana, the Republic of the Congo, Senegal, South Africa and several other countries.
Young women feel the sting of unemployment even more sharply. The African Development Bank (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.
With 200 million people aged between 15 and 24 (the youth bracket), Africa has the youngest population in the world. The current trend indicates that this figure will double by 2045, according to the 2012 African Economic Outlook report prepared by experts from the African Development Bank (AfDB), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), among others.
According to the UN demographic projections, by 2100 the continent’s populace between ages 15 and 34 will more than triple by 181.4 percent to 1.3 billion people, from 447.1 million in 2019.
As a result, Africa’s youth population will be twice the expected total population of Europe, 653.30 million, with almost half or 46.30 percent of the world’s youth expected to be from the continent.
While a rising population has been projected by the UN to rock the African continent, Europe and Asia’s populations have been projected to shrink by 21.4 percent and 27.7 percent, respectively.
“Africa’s youth are better educated, healthier and more connected than previous generations, but are still lagging far behind other regions,” said the Mo Ibrahim Foundation report.
Amid a deteriorating educational sector alongside failing health system, Africans have resorted to leaving their home countries in search of greener pasture with only a few migrating because of insecurity issue.
Among the 36.3 million migrants originating from Africa, almost 80.0 percent are estimated to migrate voluntarily, according to Afrobarometer surveys from 34 countries, with the large majority of them migrating for economic reasons.
Among these reasons, the respondents surveyed ranked finding a job or better working opportunities as the major economic driver for leaving the shores of their countries, with 44 percent choosing it as a priority.
Others include fleeing economic hardship (22 percent); poverty or destitution (7 percent); better business prospects (4.6 percent) or lower taxes at a destination (0.4 percent).
“Education is only one among many socio-economic factors that contribute to a better life,” the report said.
“Across low-income settings, highly educated people are more likely to migrate due to a combination of better financial resources, greater aspirations, and lack of appropriate employment in their home environment,” it said.
The report also highlighted pressure from family, friends and communities to migrate and provide remittances as some of the reasons that drive the decision to move.
The five largest shares of people wanting to migrate for economic motives are found in Malawi, with 93.7 percent of the population.
Zimbabwe followed closely at 92 percent; Niger 90.4 percent, Lesotho 87.4 percent, and Mali 87.2 percent.
These outflows of the youthful population within the continent have made remittances into the region rise from $11 billion in 2000 to $82.4 billion in 2018, representing about 3.5 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Across the region, Egypt and Nigeria had the highest remittance with their inflows accounting for about 60 percent of the total remittance inflows to Africa.
Total remittance into Egypt stood at $25.7 billion while Nigeria received $25.1 billion.
STEPHEN ONYEKWELU & MICHAEL ANI
