With a median age of 19, Africa’s youth can be its greatest strength. Skills, enterprise and belief decide which way it goes.
Half of all Africans are younger than 19. In Europe, the median age is about 43. By 2050, close to 2.5 billion people — about one in four people on earth — will be African.
What we found
A young population is either the continent’s greatest strength or its greatest risk. With skills, jobs and belief, it becomes a generation of builders, founders and teachers. Without them, it becomes a generation that leaves or waits. The difference is not fate. It is the choices made in education, enterprise and leadership in the next twenty years.
Proof from Africa
- The Tony Elumelu Foundation has funded more than 24,000 African entrepreneurs, about half of them women, with seed capital, training and mentoring.
- Kenya’s M-Pesa showed that young African markets can invent, not only adopt.
- The African Leadership Academy, founded by Fred Swaniker, trains young leaders from across the continent.
What can be done
- Teach skills that lead to work: trades, digital skills and entrepreneurship.
- Make it easy to start and register a small business.
- Give young people real responsibility early, in communities, companies and government.
Take this with you
- The youngest continent has the most to gain from the next twenty years.
- Every young person who builds at home is a reason for others to stay.