Enabling Africa's youth to build tomorrow
Feature Highlight
With adequate investment in skills development and training, sub-Saharan Africa could add up to $500 billion every year to its economies.
Your old road is Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one, If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.
Bob Dylan may have had revolution in mind when he penned the lyrics to his hit The Times They Are A'Changin'. But there is a larger truth to this legendary song. Society changes through its youth. Previous generations provide the shoulders to stand on, but the youth take our world forward.
Yet there is a catch. Society also changes through its innovations. Even though technology does not occur naturally and must be prompted, once it happens, the horse is out of the gate. It starts a new race, paradoxically one that isn't about winning - but not losing. Falling behind hurts economies and catching up comes at great cost.
How do societies lose pace? The obvious answer is that they fail to adopt new innovations. But adoption is really just a result - the end of an action. When societies fail to act on technology, they fail to adopt and consequently fall behind. We fail to act when we fail to give our youth the tools and understanding they require.
Dylan's song makes explicit reference to this: get out of the new road if you can't lend a hand. Neglecting to give our future generations the understanding they require is the surefire path to obsolescence. This is not news, not if you look at the urgency surrounding STEM education. Yet in an African context, this goes much further.
I am not a fan of the ideology that African nations should 'catch up' with the rest of the globe. By capitalising on the immense opportunities facing the continent, Africa can fast-track development and lead the global digital economy of the future.
Our greatest natural resource is no longer buried under the ground, waiting to be drilled or mined or extracted. Instead, it is the continent's large and growing youth population that is its greatest asset. It is predicted that by 2040, Africa's working age population will swell to 1.1 billion, creating the world's largest and fastest-growing talent pool.
The World Bank estimates that this demographic could generate between 11% and 15% GDP growth between 2011 and 2030. With adequate investment in skills development and training, sub-Saharan Africa could add up to $500 billion every year to its economies: the equivalent of one-third of the continent's current GDP.
This workforce is also set to be the most culturally diverse of any worldwide. The UN estimates there are as many as 3000 ethnic groups speaking more than 2000 different languages across the continent's 54 countries. Socially diverse groups have been found to be more innovative and better at solving complex problems than homogenous groups.
If we want to utilise this diversity, it is critical that we invest in our youth. The challenge goes beyond STEM disciplines, since technology is impacting every sphere of our worlds, every level of Maslow's famous hierarchy. It is obvious that we must promote technology thinking and understanding across society.
SAP has launched both the SAP Skills of Africa and SAP Africa Code Week programmes to support diversity and local development. It's about good business: the more skills there are, the better for SAP and its customers. Neither exist in a vacuum: the more Africa takes ownership of technology, the more all of us will benefit.
Bob Dylan sang about revolution. This is a revolution, one that Africa will lead. What must we do? Help Africa take the reins!
Brett Parker, Managing Director - SAP Africa at SAP
Other Features
-
Understanding NOFR and its potential market impact
The introduction of the Nigerian Overnight Financing Rate represents a significant step towards modernising ...
-
How philanthropic capital can accelerate prosperity by investing ...
Philanthropy can accelerate prosperity by enabling asset ownership.
-
Nigeria and the $1.5 trillion global gift card market
Gift card-to-naira conversion gives holders flexibility in how they use their funds.
-
3 infrastructure gaps Nigerian lenders can’t afford to ignore
The lenders that lead over the next year will be those that treat credit not as an isolated transaction, but as a ...
-
Monica Cash gains ground as best crypto platform as Bitcoin to ...
Monica Cash gains ground as best crypto platform as Bitcoin to Naira transactions rise across Nigeria.
-
Where do jobs really come from: A short note
Jobs are not created for their own sake; they emerge when people perform tasks that create value others are willing ...
-
Driving Africa’s fair energy transition through technology and ...
Bart Nnaji canvases decentralised approaches as essential to Africa’s path towards universal energy access.
-
Africa is not poor. It is illiquid
Charles Awanda poignantly describes Africa as a continent trapped between abundance and paralysis, and where wealth ...
-
When infrastructure becomes a bottleneck: Why we need to invest in ...
To succeed, entrepreneurs must become ecosystem innovators, building not only their products or services, but also ...
Most Popular News
- Low-tech longevity investments could unlock $6 trillion worldwide – WEF
- AFC secures €108 million to boost Togo’s food security
- Lloyds Energy evaluates LNG investments in Africa, Asia
- UNFPA official declares Nigeria population as speculative and inaccurate
- Report highlights impact of fragmented global payment system
- Starmer resigns as UK Prime Minister amid Labour turmoil
Quick Search for Upcoming Events
Event Categories
