Youth Unemployment in Africa: creativity and talents could be harnessed

With the youngest population in the world, Africa’s youth unemployment is becoming worrisome. However, the abundant creativity and talents of Africa’s young people could be harnessed to help turn the continent’s socioeconomic fortunes around, reports Africa Renewal’s Kingsley Ighobor

Senegalese opposition politicians denounced the country’s high unemployment rate to mobilize youth against former President Abdoulaye Wade in the country’s 2012 presidential election. Joblessness was one of the main issues that drove the country’s many young unemployed into the voting stations to press for a change of government. The lesson of Senegal’s election violence is that youth unemployment, which is 15 per cent in that country, can fuel the fire of political violence and civil unrest. A World Bank survey in 2011 showed that about 40 per cent of those who join rebel movements say they are motivated by a lack of jobs.

With 200 million people aged between 15 and 24 (the youth bracket), Africa has the youngest population in the world. The 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 industrialized countries’ Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), among others.

The story of Africa’s worrisome youth unemployment is often told alongside the story of the continent’s fast economic growth. Six of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world are in sub-Saharan Africa. Youths account for 60 per cent of all African unemployed, according to the World Bank. In North Africa the youth unemployment rate is an eyebrow-raising 30 per cent. It is even worse in Botswana, the Republic of the Congo, Senegal, South Africa and several other countries.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via Youth Unemployment in Africa: a Ticking Time Bomb or an Opportunity?.