By Pancy Maina
The African Labour market is one of the most lucrative
markets in the world. This is largely pegged on the back of a very hard-working
and increasingly becoming tech-savvy labour force that is emerging from the
region.
Even though there is a ready labour force, there are
challenges that the continent is facing which include poverty, lack of access
to education, corruption, unemployment and so many other challenges that hinder
the expansion of the sector.
Africa, however, has the biggest potential for growth,
only and only if private institutions devise strategies to help bridge the
unemployment gap in the region. Strategies such as partnerships with other
regional entities to help create jobs, spark innovation and promote inclusive
growth are just among the major ways that the talent gap in Africa can be
bridged.
The call for partnerships and cooperation between African
countries, international investors and other interested multinational registers
successes, innovative ideas and tangible progress in specific cooperation
projects, how?
These international investors have the financial muscle
to help empower innovative ideas that spark in the region but die upon arrival
due to financial constraints, poverty and all other issues that I have
mentioned at the beginning of the article.
Pancy Maina, Campaign Manager, BrighterMonday Kenya
As BrighterMonday, we have recently discovered that our
clients need us to meet them at their point of need, and this means
tailor-making solutions that will cater for their needs.
We recently relaunched
under The African Talent Company intending to bridge the African talent gap and
this is with our renewed value proposition that touches on Online Recruitment,
Hybrid Recruitment, Partnerships and Outsourcing.
Our need to leverage on partnerships is also pegged on
the huge talent gap in the continent and are looking to partner with companies
with like-minded goals and values to unlock employment opportunities in Africa,
as the continent recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the African Development Bank, Africa is
projected to recover in 2021 from its worst economic recession in half a
century. Economic activity in the continent was constrained in 2020 by the
COVID-19 pandemic which caused havoc in all economies.
The business climate has not been favourable around the
world, but at this point, partnerships with non-African and African companies
are the best way to tap into the labour market
When the pandemic struck, in Africa, Specifically Kenya,
a record 1.7 million people lost their jobs as employers were cutting down on
costs and having a whole labour force was proving difficult to work with.
Internationally, there was a great resignation, which is still ongoing, where
people voluntarily leave their jobs to work on other projects. This creates a
huge gap.
Organizations should look into this gap and decipher that
the only way to plug this gap is by partnerships. If African countries have the
ready labour force but lack the technology and financial muscle to enable job
seekers to get employment, yet there is an able partner, who has the
opportunity, technology and financial muscle to enable job seekers to get
access to jobs, this means that the unemployment gap will be bridged
successfully.
In 2021, the number of jobs in the Kenyan public sector
rose to 923,075 from 884,600 the previous year. In the private sector, jobs
stood at 1.9 million in 2021, compared to 1.8 million in 2020. This shows that
the economies are improving as the pandemic effects keep wearing out. These
jobs are however minimal in comparison to the opportunities that are available
with the non-African partners.
There are however key things that organisations should
look into even as they partner to make Africa a better investment location.
According to His Excellency Denis Sassou Nguesso,
President of the Republic of Congo:
Investing in Africa remains one of the keys to the
development of the African continent, which should not be condemned to
stagnation. Africa, therefore, needs infrastructure, initiatives and services
that are prerequisites for laying the foundations for its development.
Otherwise, how else can we develop our countries without electricity, without
viable channels and means of communication, without information and communication
technologies? But, above all, how can we access all these services with our
limited resources?
As much as businesses are looking out for like-minded
people to work with, who serve the same goals as they do, the top of mind
should be bettering the continent to become better. This only happens when the
labour force is tapped into to steer innovations and infrastructure that will
ultimately better the economy.
Businesses deciding to venture into partnerships is a
win-win situation, and above all, we, as Africans, are helping out in assisting
governments to solve one of the biggest challenges that the continent is
facing.
Pancy Maina, Campaign Manager,BrighterMonday Kenya,
[email protected]
