Building A Thriving Innovation Economy
Our Context -The World In Which We Work
According to the United Nations World Population Prospects 2019, Africa is expected to double its population to nearly 2.4 billion people by 2050 with about half of that being people under 25 years of age. Nine countries will make up more than half the global projected population growth between now and 2050 with 5 of these countries being in Africa: Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, the United Republic of Tanzania, and Egypt. Africa’s young and increasingly educated population is another asset for accelerating the continent’s digital transformation 8 . The number of Africans aged 15 to 29 with an upper secondary or tertiary education has risen from 47 million in 2010 to 77 million in 2020. Progress is most notable in North Africa, where 47% of the youth have at least an upper secondary education. Under business-as-usual scenarios, this number will increase to 165 million
by 2040. In relative terms, the proportion of African youth completing an upper secondary or te rtiary education could reach 34% by 2040, close to the proportion in Asia and up from 23% today. If African countries follow the same trajectory as projected for Korea in a fast-track scenario, this proportion could even reach 73% (233 million) by 2040. These encouraging statistics come with a warning. Despite the increasingly educated population, the African continent is facing massive youth unemployment and under-employment indicating that we are already facing major challenges in absorbing youth into the job market. Our population is growing faster than we can create jobs. The African Development Bank has stressed the need for urgent measures to match the continent’s growing population and youth unemployment, which they likened to a “ticking time bomb.”
14
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker