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Youth unemployment is one of today’s big global challenges. The United Nations, for statistical purposes, defines ‘youth’, as those persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years, without prejudice to other definitions by Member States. The definition of youth seems to be term that is very subjective and related to culture (Youth Entrepreneurship, 2013). In this study the youth is defined as entrepreneurship self employment of people younger than 30 years. It is important to note that young people younger than 30 years account for half of global population. Due to various factors (including lack of experience or lack of skills) young people are at much higher risk of being unemployed, but also underemployed. According to International Labor Organization (ILO, 2018) unemployed young people (aged 15-24) account for 45 percent of 191 million of globally unemployed. The World Bank estimates that we need 600 million new jobs in the next 10 years just to keep global employment rates constant and according to the International Labor Organization, 73.3 million of the world’s unemployed are young people (about 36%). Youth entrepreneurship offers innovative solutions for economic growth among young people. But youth enterprise initiatives are still relatively new to global development (Baporikar, 2020a). Youth unemployment has scourged the African continent, with rates for Sub-Saharan and North Africa as of 2016 being 13 percent and 30.5 percent, respectively (Africa Capacity Building Fund, 2018).
While North Africa has the highest rate of unemployed youths in the world, Sub-Saharan Africa continues to have the highest youth working poverty rate globally at 70 percent. The youth bulge estimated at an annual 12 million joining the labor market poses a challenge to sustainable development, and could prove socially or politically destabilizing as well. ACBF Report (2018) acknowledges that the youth can be a positive force for development when provided with the knowledge and opportunities they need to thrive. In particular, young people should acquire the education and skills needed to contribute in a productive economy, and they need access to a job market that can absorb them into its labor force. Improved education levels present many opportunities for Africa’s youth population is not only growing rapidly, but is also getting better educated, with estimated at 137 million 20 to 24 year olds to have acquired secondary education by 2030; while 12 million of the same age group would have had tertiary education.
The labor market is not able to absorb the millions of youth post secondary school or tertiary education. Thus, according to ACBF report there is an exigent need for African countries to enhance the entrepreneurship eco-system for youth and formulate a sustainable youth entrepreneurship strategy. This could be done by increasing access to capital, access to space, and business contacts, pro entrepreneurial policies, Support programs that could improve the chances of self-employment include business mentoring, leadership training, business planning and access to credit. Countries that have implemented successful inclusive innovation programs include Algeria (Youth Employment Support), Burkina Faso (Youth Employment and Skills Development Project), Kenya (Youth Enterprise Development Fund), Nigeria (The TEF Entrepreneurship Program and The Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria program), Senegal (recognition of skills acquired in informal training) and Uganda (The Youth Venture Capital Fund, 2018).