Let’s get personal.

I know I won the parent lottery, and I am proud and grateful

for this fortune. While my Ugandan father and Zimbabwean mother are not
wealthy people, they were able to provide me with an excellent education, deep
love and support, and a stable home. Teamed with a great deal of hard work,
this made it possible for me to enjoy the incredible professional career I have
had to date. As one of the lucky ones, I get to watch and track the evolutions in
today’s working world and figure out how best to prepare myself for the new set
of needs and opportunities ahead. As a proud Mo Ibrahim Foundation Scholar,
I’m currently in London sharpening my sword for the next wave of challenges on
the continent of the future. But what about my 1.2 billion brothers and sisters
back home?

We’ve all heard the stats, by the end of the century the global population will
have risen by 4 billion people, 3 billion of which will be African. The good news is
that Africa has and continues to drastically improve on significant markers such
as literacy and the reduction of childhood deaths. An immediate challenge is how
to feed 3 billion extra mouths with the panacea surely being among the fact that
Africa is home to 60% of the world’s arable land. Africa's positive progress has
been due to critical investments in health and education, but unlike Asia, which
has doubled agricultural productivity with its grain revolution, Africa needs much
more investment in farming and other training.

As it stands, about half of the African population is 20 years old or under. To me,
this describes an exciting future for the continent with the energetic culture of
growth and high ambition in the youth. Over the next 30 years, the working-age
population of Europe will decline by 85m, while that of China is expected to
shrink by 200m. While this happens, Africa’s working-age population will rise by
a staggering 900m suggesting that Africa is poised to dominate the world’s
workforce. Are we ready to thrive under this tide of change? Worryingly, the data
indicates that many young Africans are receiving an education that does not
adequately or appropriately equip them with the skills they need in today's job
market.

The Ibrahim Index of African Governance measures useful markers that help us
understand this situation. The 2018 report indicates that education outcomes, on
average, deteriorated for half of the continent (27 countries) between 2013 and
2017. This was driven by declining measures of satisfaction with education
provision as well as educational quality. The most worrisome result, however,
was the drop in score for alignment of education with market needs.
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The report also uncovers that young Africans with higher levels of education
suffer greater unemployment rates than those with basic education. Now before
you jump to go the way of Mark Zuckerberg, understand that this data is not
suggesting that dropping out of college is your best path to founding the next
African Facebook. What it’s telling us is that, as a continent, we need to evolve
our education systems to bring them in alignment with the needs of today’s and
tomorrow’s jobs as we create them. What it’s telling us is that, as a young
African, you need to find a way to gain the skills and opportunities that that can
unlock the future you dream of at night.

The challenge for Africa is to find a way to prepare for and take advantage of the
brightest future it has seen in centuries. The media does an active job of
outlining all the reasons that we won't see this future, so let's get personal once
again. The young Africans of today will lead the world’s largest workforce in one
generation’s time. If we take individual ownership of this challenge and embrace
our culture of community, we can fight for this future 750 million strong and
growing.