Youth Unemployment in Africa: A Looming Crisis and the Nigerian Perspective.
There can be no meaningful economic growth if the youth population is neglected or overlooked, especially in a continent like Africa where 60% of its population are young people. As an authority in youth employability, I’m compelled to address the pressing issue of youth unemployment in Africa, particularly in Nigeria, and explore ways to unlock the vast potential of this demographic.
The unemployment rate refers to the number of people of working age who do not have a job, are available for work, and have taken specific steps to find a job in the previous four weeks. With the world’s youngest population expected to double to over 830 million by 2050, the continent’s future depends on harnessing this demographic dividend (African Development Bank).
However, the reality is stark:
– Approximately 20% of young people aged 15-24 are unemployed, with nearly 13 million young people unemployed and over 60 million working in indecent conditions (IloStat).
– In Africa, one-third of the 420 million youth aged 15-35 are unemployed and discouraged, another one-third are vulnerably employed, and only one in six is in wage employment.
The Nigerian Context
In Nigeria, the youth unemployment rate has fluctuated, reaching an all-time high of 53.40% in Q4 2020. Recent data shows a rate of 8.4% in Q1 2024, down from 8.6% in Q3 2023 (National Bureau of Statistics).
Causes and Consequences
The causes of high unemployment rates in Africa are multifaceted:
– Population growth: A rapidly growing population leads to a surplus of job seekers.
– Skills mismatch: Educational institutions fail to equip students with relevant skills.
– Economic factors: Economic challenges, such as price fluctuations, affect employment rates.
The consequences are severe:
– Unemployment translates to poorer living conditions, fuels migration, and contributes to conflict.
– A failure to capitalize on Africa’s greatest asset: its large and growing population of talented young people.
Solutions
To tackle this issue, comprehensive approaches are needed:
– Skills alignment: Incorporate curricula that teach relevant skills for today’s job market.
– Leveraging technology: Provide digital training to prepare youth for the growing digital economy.
– Job creation: Create opportunities for youth, with tremendous potential impact, as outlined in the African Development Bank’s Jobs for Youth in Africa Strategy 2016-2025.
By employing these strategies, we can unlock Africa’s greatest asset – its youth – and drive inclusive economic growth.
It’s crucial that we recognize everyone has a part to play in combating this menace:
– For youth waiting for others to take charge of their upskilling: take your skills development into your own hands. No one is coming to save you.
– To employers of labor: to have a sustainable pipeline of digital talents, we must be willing to have a talent development plan. No organization scales without talents; people build organizations.
– To large corporations: your CSR should focus on initiatives that have a direct impact on the growth of the climate you operate in. It should go beyond lip service.
– To government: this is where systemic change can happen. Fixing the curriculum that is no longer serving us is now a matter of emergency. You don’t have to start from scratch and use three years to develop such a curriculum. We at the Skilled For Work Academy have already invested three years in developing a skill-up curriculum that encompasses all fundamental workplace skills that every person of working age should have, and we’ve made it available for use.
Let’s work together to speed up this change. Imagine incorporating this curriculum at the secondary and tertiary levels. It means that the 500,000 graduates produced in Nigeria alone each year will not just be schooled but actually skilled for the digital workforce.
I look forward to seeing us all take our part in the solution seriously.
Together, we can build an ecosystem of skilled talents that will drive the economic growth of Africa.
Dr. Aderinsola Adio-Adepoju
Sustainability | Innovation & Entrepreneurship | Global Opportunities | Employability Skills