Reshaping The Job Market In Africa With An Entrepreneurial Push

By Author: Djembe Consultants
Total Articles: 3
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The nature of jobs is rapidly shifting towards tech-enabled productivity enhancement for a better competitive edge nowadays. This has made job creation a global challenge and Africa is not an exception. Ironically, the market is not reeling under the crisis of a shortage of jobs, but the quality is indeed a matter of concern.

When it comes to job creation and entrepreneurship in Africa, most of the discussion remains focused on the low unemployment rate. Only 3-4% of the Africans have a job at hand and one-third of the population is living below the poverty line.


Experts believe that African nations have to realign the job market with a focus on value addition. They can achieve this by creating jobs through innovation-driven enterprises for better compensations.

Reshaping job market in the new Africa

Unlike developed and emerging economies, the Dark Continent is still struggling to restructure the job market, as the majority of the population is agrarian and living in rural areas. Since agriculture practices are archaic and the produce market isn’t global, farmers fail to get a decent price and causal laborers the wage. Demographers and labor market experts are suggesting the decoupling of employment from underemployment with the focus of skill-driven value creation. This is where the entrepreneurs come in the scene, as they can build an innovative micro-ecosystem to train manpower and build an economy of value creation.

Nurture entrepreneurial spirit

It takes time to restructure the labor market and in the case of Africa, farming and mining will remain at the core of the job market. With little policy support and financial backing, the government can create an ecosystem to impart skills so that they could be better market-fit. Nevertheless, the innovation-driven entrepreneurial ventures often struggle to get quality manpower in Africa, so there should be policy support to find the demand-supply balance of skilled workforce. Neo age ventures can do wonders in terms of value creation and make Africa the value-creation hub. Just advance diamond polishing could help create thousands of high-paying jobs in Africa, which otherwise goes to other countries.

Sector-specific plan

The era of generalization is over. We are living in a world of specialization, so industrial and labor policies should be industry-specific to help build ecosystems aligned with the global chain. The generalization kills the passion to think new. It is not just about writing good words on paper but enabling a practical process to help young minds experiment so that they could create jobs for Africans. Simple innovations in farming practices could boost productivity and tech-centric small value addition could double farm income in just a few years.

The job market is a dynamic space, so any strategy must have an element of dynamic accommodation and absorption capacity. Flexibility, freedom, and little support, both financially and policy-wise, is the key to reshape the market of job creation and entrepreneurship in Africa.