Support demand driven skills, W/Bank tells Nigeria, Malawi, Angola, Ghana, others

The World Bank has said that for Sub Saharan Africa to create jobs and reduce poverty, authorities must supporting demand-driven skills and promote organizational transformation of work.

According to the Bank in its African Pulse report, the continent’s leaders must ensure political stability and strengthen institutions to support the market economy.

“Achieving inclusive growth through fiscal stabilization and debt reduction”, was key, the Washington based lender said.

The report stated that growth in the region has delivered poor job creation and slow poverty reduction.

According to the global financial institution, Sub Saharan Africa faces the challenge of creating better jobs for more people noting that it will require an ecosystem that facilitates firm entry, stability, and growth as well as skill development that matches business demand.

“The urban employment share of the working-age population has remained roughly 22-23% over the past two decades. Much of the population in the region remains rural and employed in agriculture, which is strongly associated with poverty.

“Lack of firm growth holds back the creation of good quality jobs, as 96% of firms have fewer than five employees. Policies that disproportionately affect larger firms—through taxes, regulations, or uneven enforcement—inhibit workforce expansion and lead to misallocation of resources. Even with strong improvements in labor demand, the region will need to provide a path to employment for the most vulnerable to meet the job growth required by the demographic transition.

“To a large extent, the gender wage gap reflects employment segregation, representing a loss of potential productivity from the misallocation of female labor. Similarly, poverty can lead to self-reinforcing cycles of joblessness and poor productivity through worse education, health, and productivity-enhancing inputs. In fragile and conflict-affected countries, internally displaced populations, refugees, and migrants are especially vulnerable and many have difficulty accessing local opportunities and resources,” it said.