Tony Elumelu, the entrepreneur, philanthropist and chairman of Heirs Holdings Limited, a pan-African investment company, has argued that Africa must do more to tackle the threat of unemployment, which risks derailing Africa’s economic growth, in an article published on Reuters this week.
Elumelu advocated the launch of a comprehensive, coordinated approach similar to the ‘Marshall Plan’ implemented by the United States in Europe after World War II.
He suggested that this Marshall Plan be built on the three interdependent ‘pillars’ of development: policy reform and a commitment to the rule of law; investment in infrastructure; and commitment to developing Africa’s manufacturing and processing industries.
Such a plan is needed, Elumelu highlighted in the article, because of the continent’s demographic time bomb: 122 million Africans are forecast to enter the labour market by 2020, yet economists expect just 54 million new jobs to be created within the same period.
Elumelu’s investment philosophy, Africapitalism which advocates the public, private and development sectors working together with the objective of creating economic and social wealth, could provide a way to generate the jobs needed to keep Africa’s path to prosperity on track.