Africa's population is growing at unprecedented rates. If the current growth rates in population are sustained, then Africa will have the most number of people in the world by 2040. Equally, Africa is the youngest continent in the world, with an average age of just 19 years. Even if Africa is the second fastest growth region in the world, it is clear that this growth rate cannot keep up with the population growth. What's more, this growth is not leading to the creation of more jobs, but rather to the enrichment of a tiny elite, leading to what's known as 'jobless growth'. Due to this, the rate of unemployment is high, especially among the youth where it hovers at over 40 percent. How then can policy makers increase the number of jobs in Africa?
One aspect is to increase the number of high growth businesses. High growth businesses enable the creation of huge amounts of wealth, and in the process, lead to the creation of clean, decent, and rewarding jobs.
Fresh graduates could also be kept in internships, instead of idling at home, ensuring that they get the requisite skills to be able to perform on the job. One of the accusations that has been labelled against African University graduates today is that they do not have the requisite job skills needed to perform in the workplace, and one way that this can be solved is by enabling graduate and management trainee programs.
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