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]
