Around one-third of African Youth are unemployed and another one-third are vulnerably employed, mostly in the informal sector. More than 400 million Africans are between the ages of 15 to 35 years.

1. AFRICAN YOUTH
UNEMPLOYMENT
SAMASI ANDERSON
anderson.samasi@yahoo.com, +2349037487967

2. DEFINITION OF AN AFRICAN YOUTH
Any African between the ages of fifteen (15)
to thirty-five (35) years.
Source: African Youth Charter of the African Union

3. NOTE
Around one-third of African Youth are
unemployed and another one-third are
vulnerably employed, mostly in the informal
sector.
Source: African Development Bank, African Union
More than 400 million Africans are between
the ages of 15 to 35 years.

4. STATISTICS OF AFRICAN YOUTH
MIGRATION
INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION FOR MIGRATION (2007)
Around 4.6 million African migrants live in Europe. The demographic dynamics indicates that
young people constitute major chunk.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CENSUS (2000)
52.4% of African migrants are between 25 and 44 of age.
UNITED NATIONS DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS/ORGANISATION OF
ECONOMIC COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT (2013)
10.8% of African male migrants are highly educated and 8.8% of African female migrants are
highly educated.
MISSING MIGRANTS (ONLINE, 2017)
24% of migrants deaths in the Mediterranean sea from January to August 2017 are from Sub-
Saharan Africa, 18.2% in 2016 and 32.8% in 2015.

5. EDUCATION FOR AFRICAN YOUTH
Around 49 million African youth were enrolled in African
secondary schools in 2012. Estimates shows that about 30
million African youth graduates from African secondary
schools annually.
Only one-third of secondary graduates gets the opportunity
to further their education to higher level, leaving most of the
left two-third without skills or any means of livelihood.
In 2013, 7.2 million Sub-Saharan youth enrolled in higher
institutions.
Source: The African-American Institute “State of Education in Africa Report 2015”. World Bank
Group “Sharing Higher Education’s Promise beyond the few in Sub-Saharan Africa”

6. WHY AFRICAN YOUTH ARE UNEMPLOYED
PERSPECTIVE OF POLICY MAKERS
“There are number of opportunities for youths in our country. The government is
emphasizing on technical training to ensure the youth have the skills required for
various jobs ”_____State House Kenya (22nd May, 2019 tweet).
“We know that millions of these young people do not complete school, when they do,
they don’t have the skills our economy needs ”______President Cyril Ramaphosa
(speaking at the launch of YES initiative 2018).
“Young people are willing to risk everything to improve their circumstances. We’ve seen
in recent times, high number of them taking harrowing risk around the Sahara Desert
and the Mediterranean trying to reach the mirage of a better life in Europe. What this
means is that if we provide the right environment in Africa, they will make our
continent great ”______President Nana Akufo-Addo (speaking at John F. Kennedy Jr.
Forum at Harvard Kennedy School, May, 2019).

7. PERSPECTIVES OF AFRICAN YOUTH
“Liberia has more literate who only knows our to read and write than educated
people who are knowledgeable and skilled” __Liberian respondent.
“The type of graduates Zambia produces are not innovative and creative”
__Zambian respondent.
“The cause of unemployment is, to whom you know system of employment;
workers that are due for retirement refusing to leave the scene, falsification of
dates of births is very rampant”__ Ghanaian respondents.
“The cause of unemployment is just the employment system, it is locked by certain
politicians, to get employed you need to be known by a high person in government”
__ Democratic Republic of the Congo respondent.
“The job market is very strict towards young job seekers in terms of experience,
this criterion excludes many of us” __ Burundi respondent.
“Government policies does not allow companies to employ; the available resources
are mismanaged” __ Nigerian respondent.

8. SOME POLICIES TARGETING YOUTH
UNEMPLOYMENT
NIGERIA N-POWER VOLUNTEER CORPS, N-POWER KNOWLEDGE, N-
POWER BUILD
GHANA YOUTH IN APPAREL AND TEXTILES, YOUTH IN INFORMATION
COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY, COMMUNITY TEACHING
ASSISTANTS, YOUTH IN SANITATION AND COASTAL
ASSISTANTS, YOUTH IN AGRICULTURE AND AFFORESTATION,
YOUTH IN COMMUNITY SERVICE AND SECURITY ETC.
KENYA KENYA YOUTH EMPLOYMENT AND OPPORTUNITIES PROJECT
SOUTH AFRICA YOUTH EMPOWERMENT SERVICE (YES),
ZAMBIA NATIONAL ACTION PLAN ON YOUTH EMPOWERMENT,
NATIONAL YOUTH POLICY
https://www.yea.gov.gh/index.php/yea-modules, http://mis.kyeop.go.ke/
https://www.ilo.org/africa/countries-covered/Zambia/WCMS_391164/lang--en/index.htm,
https://www.yes4youth.co.za/, https://www.npower.gov.ng/n-teach.html

9. CONCLUSION
It is factual that African governments are
not unaware of the prevalence youth
unemployment in the continent and
policies are not deficient in the continent
to mitigate it, but the poor
implementation of policies targeting
youth unemployment.

10. RECOMMENDATION
African government’s should contract the
implementation of employment policies to
private institutions. Private institutions
should supervise the implementation of
policies and the remuneration should
based on the output.