{"id":9202,"date":"2026-06-26T00:38:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T00:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=9202"},"modified":"2026-06-26T00:38:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T00:38:51","slug":"the-power-of-africas-youth-population","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=9202","title":{"rendered":"The power of Africa\u2019s youth population"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"textFreeArticle\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/iframe.iono.fm\/e\/1689762?layout=modern\" width=\"100%\" height=\"170\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm\u00a0here.<\/p>\n<p>A company\u2019s strategy and cash flow needs often determine whether it pays dividends to reward its shareholders or reinvests profits into the business to drive growth. Dividends serve as an indicator of an institution\u2019s financial health, helping to attract investor demand and thus influencing stock prices.<\/p>\n<p>They communicate a company\u2019s upcoming prospects and performance, with mature companies more likely to pay dividends as opposed to growth companies.<\/p>\n<p>According to World Data Lab (WDL), Africa is home to 532 million young people between the ages of 15 and 35, with this number expected to grow in the coming decades.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The continent\u2019s burgeoning youth population has been characterised as the \u201cyouth or demographic dividend\u201d.<\/p>\n<div class=\"visible-sm-block visible-xs-block m1010\">\n<div class=\"ad-container-wrapper\">\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>An argument can however be made that the continent is yet to realise this dividend.<\/p>\n<p>Listen\/read:<br \/>Lobbying for youth in property<br \/>The forces shaping Africa\u2019s near future <br \/>Africa\u2019s \u2018youthquake\u2019<\/p>\n<p>According to WDL, over 10 million young people enter the African labour market each year while current growth patterns are estimated to only create some three million formal jobs.<\/p>\n<p>The gap between sustained economic growth and sufficient decent work is thus exposed.<\/p>\n<p>In 2025, 90% of employed youth on the continent were engaged in informal work \u2013 earning a living outside established legal and regulatory systems. The highest rates of informality were recorded in central, western and eastern Africa, while north and southern Africa had lower informality rates.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1846563\" style=\"width: 535px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1846563\" class=\"wp-image-1846563 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/10a.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"525\" height=\"417\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/10a.jpg 525w, https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/10a-150x119.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/10a-142x113.jpg 142w, https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/10a-230x183.jpg 230w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 525px) 100vw, 525px\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-1846563\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: World Data Lab<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>In this episode of The Business of Africa, we profile the state of young people in South Africa as the country marks\u00a0Youth Month in June.<\/p>\n<div class=\"visible-sm-block visible-xs-block m1010\">\n<div class=\"ad-container-wrapper\">\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT:<\/p>\n<p>CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Tsakane Zibi is a young person who reached out to us wanting to talk about the stubborn unemployment rates in the country but also solutions to shifting the dial from loss to dividend. She is\u00a0a market analyst at Barloworld Equipment.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1846564\" style=\"width: 565px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1846564\" class=\"wp-image-1846564 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/210-555x249.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"555\" height=\"249\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/210-555x249.jpg 555w, https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/210-1024x459.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/210-150x67.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/210-215x96.jpg 215w, https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/210-230x103.jpg 230w, https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/210-744x334.jpg 744w, https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/210.jpg 1119w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 555px) 100vw, 555px\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-1846564\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: StatsSA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>For Africa to declare a \u2018youth dividend\u2019, sustained effort must be undertaken to drive economic growth in sectors that create decent work opportunities at scale.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, targeted interventions in education, training and the absorption of young people into the formal labour market must be considered. These, among many other material investments in young people, hold promise of a real return for the continent \u2013 and, arguably, the world at large.<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-body-content\" class=\"article-body m0010 \">\n<div id=\"textParagraph\" class=\"block\">\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<div id=\"textFreeArticle\" class=\"paywalled-content\">\n<p><em>For previous episodes of The Business of Africa podcast,\u00a0click\u00a0here.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>#power #Africas #youth #population<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm\u00a0here. A company\u2019s strategy and cash flow needs often determine whether it pays dividends to reward its shareholders or reinvests profits into&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[410,11263,2617,6347],"class_list":["post-9202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing","tag-africas","tag-population","tag-power","tag-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}