[Blog] Africa’s youth boom could transform economies if opportunity keeps pace

By Jalal Abdel-Latif, Senior Social Policy Advisor, Socio-Economic Development Division, ECA

In February this year, when I sat with young people in Dire Dawa, a fast-growing city in eastern Ethiopia, I was struck not by a lack of ideas, but by a lack of access.

The room was full of energy. Young people - employed, self-employed and unemployed - spoke about innovation, ambition and the desire to build something of their own. A decent job that could support their families. A productive business that could create jobs for others. A future shaped by their own effort.

But time and again, the conversation turned to the same barriers, especially limited access to finance. “To start a business, you need money,” one young entrepreneur, Mr. Buzayew Abebe, told us. “To secure even basic equipment, you need a guarantor. And if you don’t know someone, it becomes very difficult.”

His experience is not unique. Across Ethiopia, and around Africa, young people are ready to work, innovate and contribute.

Africa’s greatest asset

Young people are the continent’s greatest asset. But too often, they are navigating systems that make it difficult to turn potential into progress.

This is not because policies do not exist. Many African countries have national youth policies designed to support employment and entrepreneurship. These policies reflect strong commitment.

But the real test is not what is written on paper, but what happens on the ground. Are young people able to move from education into decent work? Can they access finance to start or grow a business? Too often, the answer we heard is: not yet.

The challenge is not only about jobs, but about the quality of jobs available. Across much of Africa, economies are not yet creating enough opportunities in higher-productivity sectors - the kinds of jobs that offer stable incomes, growth and security. As a result, many young people are working, but in the informal economy.

This can mean selling goods on the street, doing casual construction work or providing services without contracts or protection. These jobs demand resilience and effort, but they are often low-paying, unstable and vulnerable to shocks.

This reality is even more pronounced for young women. And while Africa has one of the highest rates of women entrepreneurs globally, many operate small, survival-driven businesses that struggle to grow, often due to gaps in access to education, finance and networks.

This is the paradox at the heart of Africa’s labour markets. Young people are working but not always moving up the income ladder.

A shift in thinking

The scale of the challenge is growing. Africa has the youngest population in the world. By 2035, more young people will enter the workforce each year in Africa than in the rest of the world combined.

If handled well, this could be a powerful engine for growth and shared prosperity. But this will not happen on its own. It requires deliberate and accelerated action to ensure economies create not just more jobs, but better ones, and that young people can access them. This, in turn, requires a shift in how we think about youth employment and entrepreneurship.

For years, many programmes have focused heavily on building skills. This is important. But skills alone are not enough if there are no jobs to match them, or no pathways into entrepreneurship.

At the same time, many youth initiatives fall short not because of a lack of effort, but because they are not designed to work as a system. Too often, they focus on one piece of the puzzle, such as training, without linking it to finance, markets or employers. Coordination across institutions is often weak, and support does not always reach young people when and where they need it.

According to our ongoing analysis, what works is more integrated. Successful approaches combine multiple elements: building relevant skills, supporting job creation, enabling entrepreneurship, connecting young people to employers, and creating an environment where businesses can grow. In simple terms, they support the full journey, from learning to earning.

From insight to action

This is the thinking behind a new initiative being piloted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

It works in a simple sequence. First, we look at the data. Through our collaboration with Oxford Economics, we identify where and why things are falling short.

Second, we bring those findings together with real experiences. In Dire Dawa, we engaged city officials, businesses, educators and young people to understand what is working and what can work better. In Addis Ababa, we brought together experts from across the region to compare experiences and lessons.

What we heard was strikingly consistent. The challenge is no longer policy design; it is delivery. The issue is not a lack of solutions, but a lack of connection between them.

Young people described training that leads nowhere, finance they cannot reach, and systems that feel fragmented and difficult to navigate. They were clear that they want practical support, easier access to markets, and a real chance to stand on their own feet. They no longer want to be passive recipients of policy, but active partners in delivering it.

The final step is turning these insights into action. Our goal is not to create new policies, but to help member states ensure existing ones deliver fully, by improving coordination, strengthening institutions and aligning support with economic realities.

In practical terms, this means changing the experience of a young person from completing a training course with no follow-up, to having a clear pathway where skills lead to a source of income.

An unmissable opportunity

This work is urgent. Buzayew’s story is not just about a young entrepreneur in Dire Dawa, navigating barriers to grow a business. It reflects a much wider reality, one shared by tens of millions of young people across the continent, from Accra to Algiers to Antananarivo.

The question is whether we are prepared to meet that reality with equally ambitious solutions.

What is clear is that young people are not waiting. They are already building, innovating and contributing. What they need now is not more promises but an environment that works with them – and for them.

If we get this right, Africa’s youth will not just be a demographic trend. They will drive the continent’s transformation.

That is an opportunity – and the responsibility - we cannot aff