Before the outbreak of Covid-19, about 55,000 small scale traders and businessmen transported and traded food and goods across the border of Rwanda and the DR Congo every day.
Among these people was Clarisse Kayitesi, a 26-year-old Rwandan woman and the founder of SAGA Blessing, the maize flour processing company which used to employ 50 young people but downsized to 15 at the height of the pandemic.
Today, after withstanding lockdowns, lay-offs and infections, the company is finally rebuilding and again employs 35 people, as the large Congolese market beckons.
Kayitesi’s story is promising and not a unique one. Like her, millions of young people across the continent are an indispensable force for the post-pandemic build-back-better of African economies.
They are the drivers to vitalize the new African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA): a single free trade market aiming at uniting 1.2 billion people and 55 countries with a combined GDP of over $3 trillion. Without them, AfCFTA’s success would not be probable.
About 65 per cent of the continent’s population is under 35 years of age. They embrace new technologies and often take risks to achieve innovation.
They also cross borders for the better life they have dreamed. In 2019, a whopping 21 million Africans were living in an African country not where they were born, and around 19 million were living outside of the continent.
The AfCFTA needs Africa’s youth, and youth need AfCFTA. By eliminating trade barriers and allowing the free movement of people, goods and ideas, the audacious economic initiative has the potential to create more than 14 million new jobs by 2025 in the manufacturing sector alone.
It is expected to spur new companies to generate new products and jobs – dramatically lowering the 30 percent unemployment rate among youth today while strengthening communities and driving inclusive economic growth.
This transformation requires a continental level effort to engage and empower Africa’s youth. It is not enough to support a handful of entrepreneurs to find success despite the odds.
Strategic investments, policies and programmes including mentorship, business incubation, and affordable financing could lift a whole generation of young entrepreneurs and skilled workers.
Over the last decade, youth-focused associations, networks, start-up accelerators and enablers in the entrepreneurial ecosystem have known a steady growth at regional, national and sub-regional levels. Key initiatives include the African Development Banks Boost Africa initiative, the Youth Business International, the Tony Elumelu Foundation, and the Norrsken Foundation, which is building East Africa’s largest hub for entrepreneurship and innovation in Kigali, Rwanda.
Meanwhile, the YouthConnekt Africa initiative (YCA), active in 24 countries, provides a continent-wide platform to promote capacity-building, entrepreneurship and decent work of youth. It combines skill development; access to finance; awareness raising on youth issues; promotion of youth citizenship through community work; and youth inclusion in policy dialogues.
Initiatives like YCA are fuelled by partnerships. For example, YCA began as a national initiative in Rwanda, under the auspices of the Government.
The Republic of Korea, through the Korea International Cooperation Agency, and the United Nations Development Programme later came on-board as core partners, helping to expand the programme nationally, and then regionally.
With this support, YouthConnekt in Rwanda has trained more than 1,333 entrepreneurs, created over 21, 363 projects, engaged 4 million young people in hands-on activities, and awarded around 850 entrepreneurs with business grants, including Kayitesi of SAGA Blessing.
Now, YCA’s annual Summit, to take place in Ghana in October, will bring together thousands of young entrepreneurs with government and business leaders, influencers, and funders under the theme "Africa beyond Aid: Positioning the Youth for the post Covid Economy and AfCFTA opportunities.”
To many people, the idea that Africa’s youth can lead the continent toward a more prosperous future might seem like a pipedream. But by strengthening current initiatives and programs, Africa’s youth can usher in a new era of regional economic growth.
In particular, small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) initiated by young entrepreneurs, and supported by a community of partners, will be the core of AfCFTA’s success.
SMEs currently represent more than 90 per cent of businesses in Africa and employ around 60 per cent of workers, most of whom are women and youth.
Many of these are pioneering solutions to strengthen food security, develop renewable energy, and combat climate change.
To move these businesses from the periphery of the formal economy to its centre, they need support in accessing finance, technology, and training.
By working with local and national governments and development partners, youth-focused organisations can nurture the new generation of entrepreneurs that not only enter but shape the post-Covid economy, reach large new markets, and create millions more jobs.
Nearly 60 years ago, the first elected president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah wrote that, ‘We must unite for economic viability…so that our vast resources and capacity for development will bring prosperity for us and additional benefits for the rest of the world’.
Today, the AfCFTA and Africa’s youth can be a powerful force to make that dream come true.
Chae Jin-weon is Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the Republic of Rwanda.
Maxwell Gomera is a Senior Fellow of Aspen New Voices and Representative of the UnitedNations Development Programme in Rwanda. Twitter: @GomeraM.P.
The views expressed in this article are of the writers.