Africa is the world’s youngest continent, but young people are still largely missing from the rooms where decisions on growth, trade, education, innovation and governance are made. The problem is not a lack of ideas, ambition or talent among young Africans. It is that institutions have been slow to accept them as partners.
Across the continent, young people are already shaping industries. They are building fintech companies in Nigeria, developing climate solutions in Kenya, producing films in South Africa, launching fashion labels in Côte d’Ivoire and taking African music to global audiences. They are not waiting for permission, and the question is whether institutions are ready to work with them.
Africa’s biggest asset is its people, not just its minerals, oil or farmland. The World Economic Forum says more than three-quarters of the population is under 35. The African Development Bank (AfDB) projects that the youth population will pass 830 million by 2050. By then, one in four people worldwide will be African, and the continent will have the largest workforce on the planet. That shift could make Africa a global economic powerhouse, but only if young people are equipped to take part in the economy in a meaningful way.
Numbers alone do not guarantee prosperity. The International Labour Organisation says young Africans are more likely than older adults to face unemployment, underemployment or informal work. The AfDB estimates that 10 to 12 million young Africans enter the labour market every year, while only about three million formal jobs are created. That gap between education, jobs and opportunity is one of the continent’s defining development challenges.
For years, the focus has been on how to prepare young people for the future. A better question may be how institutions can catch up with the future young Africans are already creating.
The evidence is visible. Data from the AfDB and the African Union show that micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) make up about 90 percent of businesses and over 80 percent of employment in Africa, many of them started or run by young entrepreneurs. In technology, agriculture, renewable energy and digital services, young Africans are solving local problems with solutions that matter globally. Their businesses create jobs, draw investment and open new markets, showing that innovation depends on opportunity, not age.
The creative economy is a clear example. Music, film, fashion, design, gaming and digital content have become major economic assets. Afrobeats fills stadiums in Europe and North America, African films are reaching global streaming platforms, designers are showing on international runways, and creators are building online audiences in the millions.
UNESCO says Africa’s film and audiovisual sector alone could create more than 20 million jobs and generate over $20 billion a year, given more investment, stronger intellectual property protection and better distribution. These industries are now about jobs, exports and growth as much as culture. Yet many policies governing them are still drafted without input from the young people driving them.
Too often, young people are brought into policy discussions after decisions have been made. They are invited to conferences and panels or asked to speak for “the youth perspective,” but they rarely get real influence over policies that shape their future. That approach ignores reality. Young people are entrepreneurs, investors, innovators, employers, taxpayers, creators and community leaders, and they should help shape policy.
To unlock the demographic dividend, governments must stop merely consulting young people and start governing with them. That means giving young leaders seats on national advisory councils, bringing them into economic and trade policy talks, widening access to finance for young entrepreneurs, reforming education to fit the digital and creative economies, and removing regulatory barriers that hold young businesses back.
Some institutions are starting to move. The upcoming Elevate Africa Convening in Accra aims to position young Africans as decision-makers rather than observers. It will produce a Youth Communiqué, a set of recommendations drawn up by young leaders, to be formally presented to Heads of State and traditional leaders at the closing plenary. Its importance lies less in the document than in the principle that young Africans should help shape the continent’s future, not just inherit it.
That is the leadership Africa needs: one that trusts young people to help make decisions, not one that invites them in simply to be heard. Their ideas, experiences and innovations are essential to the challenges the continent faces, and Africa cannot build its future without giving them a real role in shaping it.
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