After the Bell: What young Africans want

I tend to get absurdly enthused by data. But it does have its – what should we call them – issues. This is because one of the most frequent findings of a data collection process is that you probably need more data. Still, even a little bit of data, assuming it is fairly and sensibly collected, is probably better than no data at all, especially if you can corroborate it. Well … theoretically at least.

All of this was passing through my mind reading the latest Ichikowitz Family Foundation survey of the attitudes of African youth. 

South African Ivor Ichikowitz is – how should we describe him? – an interesting guy. The company he founded, Paramount, is a defence group once based in SA but now, as far as anyone can tell, is based mainly in the UAE. Or perhaps not. It sells military aircraft, armoured vehicles, maritime systems and equipment and training to governments, notionally for peacekeeping purposes. Make of that what you will.

Anyway, that doesn’t affect the survey, now in its third year, which is compiled by a professional group. It’s really interesting because it offers a little glimpse into the attitudes of young African people. But, this is a big group of people, obvs. The survey has gradually increased in size, but still covers only 16 African countries and was conducted face-to-face with around 500 respondents in every country. As I say, this is not comprehensive by any stretch of the imagination. So, caveats galore.

But I think it is important; African youth is the world’s fastest-growing demographic. The findings of the survey do more or less match what you might suspect from other data. So what does it find?

At the top level, it finds that young Africans remain negative about the direction of the continent, although there are small improvements following the decline of Covid-19. They worry about international influences on Africa; they worry about corruption; and they worry about the lack of well-paid jobs. All totally understandable. But then on the upside, they anticipate a better life than their parents had. 

Apart from all of this, which sort of stands to reason, what stands out? I think two things: the attitude of African youth toward foreign countries is very different from what you might expect. The popularity of China is surprisingly enthusiastic, a little higher than any of the global leaders out there. And while the US remains popular, it’s definitely lagging. 

The survey found that 79% of respondents have a positive view of the US, based essentially on the view that the US provides economic support and loan finance. The US as an export destination is viewed positively, as is training provision and skills development. However, a key driver of negative perceptions is the view that US companies are exporting African natural resources without fair compensation. All of this makes intuitive sense.

There is a fundamental contradiction in the findings: young Africans are worried about foreign interference but don’t necessarily see individual foreign countries’ contributions in a negative light. Even Russia enjoys a 68% positive perception, not much less than the 73% positive view assigned to the European Union.

You can see a bit of nuance in this, however, when you read about the second important issue: emigration. Emigration is now wildly popular among African youth – three in five respondents said they are “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to consider emigrating. The level is incredibly high in Nigeria (85%) but it’s also high in countries where the current economic situation is comparably better, like Kenya. 

Some of the reasons are pretty obvious: economic issues and educational opportunities. But it’s surprising what a big motivator for emigration corruption is and sadly, but unsurprisingly, it is the biggest motivator in South Africa (38%) and Gabon (32%) among survey respondents.

Interestingly, although respondents had a positive view of China, very few would like to live there, perhaps for cultural reasons. Former colonial powers Britain and France still rank highly as appealing destinations for African youth with France (41%) slightly more popular than the United Kingdom (34%), while the US (37%) is also right up there. 

Yet home still pulls the heartstrings: 65% of those expressing a desire to emigrate say it would be temporary. That seems contradictory, but if you take into account that educational opportunities are a high priority for African youth, perhaps it is not. And it’s also contradictory, or perhaps not, that high proportions of African youth are concerned about immigration, 65% overall.

What do we make of all this? To me, it’s a reflection of the ongoing underperformance of post-colonial governments. Support for democracy remains very strong, but disappointment with the economic outcome of democracy is also evident, even in the countries where it notionally exists. It’s heartening to me that so many young Africans see creating a business as a way out – seven out of ten say they plan to start a business, but they also see a lack of access to capital and corruption as the biggest barriers to these ambitions. 

Still, entrepreneurship is now a powerhouse force in Africa, and despite all the problems, that bodes well. DM