Africa’s greatest asset is its young people (population aged 15-35) – currently estimated at over 420 million and the number is projected to nearly double by 2050, making the continent the youngest region globally (AfDB, 2022). Yet, despite this demographic advantage, unemployment and underemployment among young people remain persistently high. In Southern Africa, for instance youth unemployment averages 34.7%, more than double the global average of 13.6% (ILO, 2024). The situation is even dire in some countries: South Africa’s youth unemployment stands at 59.6% (Stats SA, Q1 2024), Namibia at 43.4% (World Bank, 2023), while Lesotho and Eswatini record rates above 35%. The crisis is also gendered – in South Africa, young women’s unemployment reaches 66.7%, compared to 54.3% for young men (Stats SA, 2024).
The high unemployment figures reflect deeper structural weaknesses in the economies of these countries. Many economies in the region remain trapped in the cycle of heavy reliance on primary commodity exports with limited value addition, constraining opportunities for decent, high productivity employment. Weak industrial bases, fragmented regional markets, skills mismatches, and limited access to finance all combine to limit the growth of youth-led enterprises in Africa.
While the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), launched in 2021, offers a potential game-changer – reducing tariffs, harmonising trade rules, and potentially increasing intra-African trade by 52% by 2030 (UNECA, 2023) – youth-led enterprises in Africa often lack the capacity, networks, and capital to seize these opportunities.
Integrating youth-led SMEs and startups in Africa into regional value chains (RVCs) presents a strategic pathway to addressing both youth unemployment and economic diversification on the continent. Successful regional integration, powered by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), can expand market access, stimulate cross-border investment, and generate scalable job creation, particularly in labour-intensive and emerging sectors such as agro-processing, textiles, green manufacturing, and logistics. For example, Zambia’s agro-industrialisation strategy targets 300,000 new jobs by 2030, with at least half for youth (ZDA, 2024). Similarly, the renewable energy sector in Namibia and South Africa is projected to create tens of thousands of jobs, with South Africa’s Green Hydrogen Programme alone expecting to employ 20,000 people by 2030 (DTIC, 2023). The implementation of the AfCFTA Protocol on Women and Youth in trade and the AfCFTA Protocol on Digital Trade can support the harnessing of the AfCFTA to foster youth entrepreneurship and create employment for the youth in Africa.
However, unlocking this potential requires more than enlarging market access opportunities for the youth, it demands deliberate policy alignment, innovative and targeted financing models, trade facilitation support, leveraging technology, innovation and digitalization, and inclusive partnership ecosystems that link youth entrepreneurs to suppliers, buyers, and enablers across borders.
Evidence from successful firms and trade hubs across Africa shows that targeted interventions can break down barriers and accelerate the participation of youth-led enterprises in RVCs and youth employment (ILO, 2015, World Bank, 2024)1. This session will build on these lessons, focusing on how to replicate and scale them within AfCFTA’s framework to deliver tangible employment and enterprise growth outcomes.
Against this backdrop, the ECA Subregional office for Southern Africa (SRO-SA) will organize a
Pre-ADIF Forum Virtual Webinar on 14 April 2025, in collaboration with the ECA African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP) and with support from the Office of the Executive Secretary. The webinar will be followed by an in-person solution session at the Africa Development Impact Forum (ADIF), organised by ECA to be held in June 2026 in Addis Ababa.
Statement by Ms Eunice G. Kamwendo at the Virtual Pre-ADIF Forum Webinar