Africa's Development Dynamics 2024

Skills, Jobs and Productivity

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Africa’s Development Dynamics

5 July 2024

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Chapter 1. Skills development for Africa’s productive transformation

Abstract

This chapter explains why developing the skills of Africa’s workforce lies at the core of the continent’s productive transformation and the African Union’s Agenda 2063. It first outlines the barriers to the continent’s skill supply and demand, namely limited quality education, gender and rural-urban divides, a high rate of informal employment, and Africa’s slow structural transformation. Second, the chapter analyses differences in foundational, soft and technical skill gaps across the continent. Third, it highlights the emerging skill demands brought about by the digital and green transitions.

In Brief

Equipping workers with quality skills is essential for Africa’s productive transformation. The number of young Africans with an upper-secondary or higher education will rise from 103 million to 240 million between 2020 and 2040. Opportunities for productive employment will be required to match the resulting supply of skills with new demand.

African countries face important barriers regarding the supply of and demand for quality skills. Supply is hampered by the population’s limited access to quality education and significant gender, rural-urban and informal-formal employment divides. Despite increases in school enrolment, the number of learning-adjusted years of schooling is more than two years lower than in any other world region. The demand for skilled workers is mostly restricted by employment growth having been confined to low-productivity sectors like agriculture, retail trade and services. Highly educated African workers tend to migrate outside the continent; 72% of tertiary-educated migrants move to high-income countries.

Skill requirements and gaps vary depending on the diversity of occupations and tasks in a country. Foundational and soft skills prove more important in the most diversified African economies than in those where agricultural employment dominates. Technical skills are key to support growth in nationally strategic sectors, but supply often does not align with specific local demand. If workers acquire superior business skills, firms across the continent will be able to improve their productivity, while informal entrepreneurs will more easily master the wide range of skills that running a business entails.

The digital revolution has created a large demand for digital skills, and climate change is now beginning to generate demand for green skills. In most African countries, skill gaps remain widest for intermediate digital skills. Green skills will be necessary to support climate adaptation and mitigation and to drive productive transformation in sectors such as renewable energies and construction.

Skills development for Africa’s productive transformation (infographic)

Continental profile

Figure 1.1. Vulnerable employment, labour productivity and education spending by world region, 2000-22

Figure 1.2. Breakdown of working population by type of occupation by world region, 2021

Africa’s growing talent pool is seeking better opportunities for productive employment

As Africa’s growing population is becoming better educated, the continent is developing an unprecedented pool of talent. Africa’s working-age population (i.e. 15-64 years old) will double by 2050, with this growth accounting for 85% of the total increase in the global working-age population.1 The number of young Africans (i.e. 15-29 years old) who have completed an upper-secondary or tertiary education will more than double between 2020 and 2040, from 103 million to 240 million. Better education for millions of Africans represents impressive progress.

Improving young Africans’ educational proficiency is essential. Basic proficiency levels in Africa are lower than in other developing regions. In 2020, the learning-adjusted number of years of schooling was 5.1 in Africa, compared to 7.2 years in developing Asia and 7.8 years in Latin America and the Caribbean (Figure 1.3). In 2019, across 18 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, the percentage of students who reached basic proficiency levels at the end of primary school was 78.3% for reading and 44.2% for mathematics. In contrast, across 14 African countries, 22.6% of students reached similar levels for reading and 5.6% for mathematics (Figure 1.4).

Figure 1.3. Average years of schooling and learning-adjusted years of schooling by world region, 2020

Figure 1.4. Minimum proficiency in mathematics and reading and primary school completion in selected countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and Africa, 2019

Important gaps exist between the skills of Africa’s secondary school graduates and those needed for employment. While better education outcomes increase the supply of foundational skills, the supply of and demand for specific combinations of skills in a particular location are sometimes poorly matched (Box 1.1). In 2016, across ten African countries,2 45% of young people who had recently graduated from secondary school felt that their skills were inappropriate for their work (17% felt over-skilled and 28% under-skilled), while 38% indicated that their education was not useful in finding jobs (AUC/OECD, 2021_[7]; Morsy and Mukasa, 2019_[8]). Studies across six African countries3 show that a large share of students graduating from secondary school would need to be retrained to match employers’ expectations in terms of technical skills (almost 50%), digital, business and managerial skills (25%) and soft skills (10-40%) (ACET, 2022_[9]).

Box 1.1. Defining and assessing skills in this report

The Africa’s Development Dynamics 2024 report assesses skill gaps, including changing skill demand across African countries, in light of the specifics of African labour markets. Bridging skill gaps is essential to productive and sustainable transformations (OECD, 2023_[10]; Aleksynska and Kolev, 2021_[11]; Fox and Ghandi, 2021_[12]). Both adjusting existing skills and building new skills will be required to adapt to rapid technological and climate change. Using data mainly from labour force and household surveys, the report analyses skill gaps across African countries by examining the prevalence of skills as well as qualification gaps and mismatches. Case studies in the report’s regional chapters highlight the needs and current policy approaches in response to changing skill demands unique to specific sectors (mining in Southern and Central Africa, digital skills in East Africa, renewable energies in North Africa and agri-food in West Africa).

Skill gaps refer to the mismatch between the skills offered by working-age individuals and those demanded within labour markets, both for formal and informal employment (OECD, 2017_[13]). Skill gaps thereby imply a lack of employability: once workers offer skills that are in demand, they are more likely to find employment.

Several types of skills are relevant for productive employment:

Foundational skills refer to the ability to process information. They include literacy and numeracy, as well as basic proficiency in mathematics, reading comprehension, speaking and writing (Gust, Hanushek and Woessmann, 2024_[14]; OECD, 2019_[15]).
Soft skills encompass (OECD, 2019_[15]):
- socio-emotional skills (e.g. self-awareness, communication, leadership and teamwork)
- transversal cognitive skills (e.g. critical and creative thinking, complex problem-solving).
Technical skills are the specialised knowledge and capabilities necessary to perform job-specific tasks (e.g. science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills, repairs, maintenance, graphic design, drawing, food production).

Three domain-specific skill sets that combine elements of soft and technical skills are core to the productive transformation (ILO, 2021_[16]; AfDB, 2020_[17]; OECD, 2016_[18]):

Business and managerial skills are the competencies required to productively operate functions within a firm (e.g. marketing, finance), while entrepreneurial skills further include the ability to start and grow a business (e.g. business model design, fundraising) (Conney, 2012_[19]).
Digital skills encompass skills that enable workers to use digital technologies productively. They range from basic (e.g. Internet navigation, mobile communication) to intermediate (e.g. use of spreadsheet and presentation software) and advanced (e.g. programming).
Green skills refer to skills to develop or modify products, services or operations in response to climate change (OECD/Cedefop, 2014_[20]).

Africa’s youth seek high-skilled occupations in the formal sector, but most employment remains informal with limited potential for skills development and productivity. Human capital and skills are foundational to economic development, provided labour markets create quality jobs at scale (Box 1.2). While the number of African workers in high-skilled occupations has grown at an average annual rate of 3% over the last 20 years, enrolment in tertiary education has grown by 5% annually. In addition, over 80% of African youth in school aspire to work in high-skilled occupations, while only 8% are able to find such jobs (OECD, 2017_[21]). Skill premiums (i.e. positive pay-offs from investing time and money into skills development) are generally more substantial in the formal sector and urban areas, but only a limited number of such jobs are available. However, informal workers – representing 82% of Africa’s workforce – often have fewer incentives to develop their skills and are more likely to remain in low-productivity, experience-based jobs (Dimova, Nordman and Roubaud, 2010_[22]). In 2022, over one in four African youth were not in employment, education or training (ILO, 2023_[23]).

Box 1.2. Supply of and demand for skills for productive employment in Africa

Skill supply is foundational to economic development. The value that labour adds to economic production depends in large part on workers’ skills (i.e. task-relevant abilities, knowledge and competencies). Macroeconomic analysis reveals that foundational skills, which are relevant for any employment and mostly attained in primary and secondary education, are highly correlated with economic growth (Hanushek and Woessmann, 2015_[24]). Africa’s gross domestic product could increase more than 22-fold, by about USD 154 trillion, before the end of the century – more than any other world region – if all African children attained foundational skill levels (Gust, Hanushek and Woessmann, 2024_[14]). However, such macroeconomic modelling assumes that the demand for foundational skills remains constant, meaning that an increase in skill supply directly results in economic growth.

Figure 1.5. Potential economic gain from children’s achieving at least basic proficiency in foundational skills in world regions by 2100

Matching skill supply with skill demand is an imperfect process. Education levels provide an incomplete approximation of skill supply, given that skill levels result from a combination of education, training, on-the-job learning and other forms of self-learning (McGrath, 2022_[26]; AUC/OECD, 2018_[27]). Skill supply is relatively inelastic, as skills represent an intangible resource whose production depends on social and cognitive processes. Acquiring skills takes time, and workers continue to obtain them while they perform jobs. Information asymmetries are large, given that the specific skills demanded by a job and supplied by a worker are typically revealed at the time that the work is being conducted. In addition, skills are not traded in isolation but instead represent only one aspect of labour supply. Workers apply their skills within labour relations for the benefit of employers (for employees) or clients (for self-employment); these relations are governed by informal and formal rules and regulations (such as social protection and labour laws). Informal workers, especially, may have significant experience-based skills that are not recognised in the form of degrees (Dimova, Nordman and Roubaud, 2010_[22]).

The demand for skills is changing fast and is hard to measure or predict. Sources of new skill demand typically arise from changing task profiles of existing occupations or emerging new occupations. While it is apparent that technological shifts such as the digital revolution create new skill demands, predicting or measuring the precise timing, location and nature of these demands is difficult (ILO, 2021_[16]). Particular new skill sets (like in artificial intelligence) may unfold their value in combination with existing or other new skill sets (Stephany and Teutloff, 2024_[28]).

The digital and green transitions offer new opportunities to increase productive employment and to upskill workers. The digital revolution and climate change are creating new skill demands in every African country, beyond country- and sector-specific developments. As the continent’s digitalisation advances, the demand for basic and intermediate digital skills is growing fast (SAP, 2023_[29]). Green skills are in high demand in specific sectors such as renewable energy and construction. Their importance will widen as countries adapt to the consequences of climate change (GCA, 2021_[30]).

Skills development is at the core of the African Union’s efforts. The African Union’s Agenda 2063 strives for “a prosperous continent … where […] well-educated and skilled citizens, underpinned by science, technology and innovation for a knowledge society [are] the norm and no child misses school due to poverty or any form of discrimination” (AUC, 2015_[31]). Overarching African Union strategies, such as the Continental Education Strategy for Africa and the Technical and Vocational Education Training Strategy,4 co-ordinate policies of member states. Aligning education and training programmes with labour market demands and industrialisation processes can help develop regional value chains as part of the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area and the continent’s overall productive transformation (AUC/OECD, 2022_[32]).

The Africa’s Development Dynamics 2024 report addresses the question of how African policy makers can use skills development policies to advance the continent’s productive and sustainable transformation. It emphasises the development of skills that are key to improving Africa’s productivity and sustainable development within and through employment, both informal and formal. The report assesses current and future skill gaps, explicitly considering not just education and training (as instruments to increase skill supply) but also the changing demand for skills. It emphasises sectors that are core to the productive and sustainable transformation (e.g. renewable energy, the digital economy, mining and agriculture) (Box 1.2).

Limited access to quality education, labour market divides and a slow productive transformation curtail Africa’s skill supply and demand

Access to quality education and employment remains unequal between genders, rural and urban populations, and informal and formal workers

Too many African children do not receive an education. Despite higher school enrolment ratios, the total number of children who do not benefit from any formal education has continued to increase due to the continent’s significant demographic growth. From 2009 to 2021, the number of out-of-school children aged between 6 and 18 increased by more than 20 million, reaching about 100 million. More than 17 million additional teachers are needed to respond to this unmet demand (UNESCO, 2022_[33]; UNICEF/AUC, 2021_[34]), equivalent to a USD 41 billion funding gap for teacher salaries.5 Thirty-eight per cent of all youth and 11.5% of employed youth have never attended school, either due to limited financial resources or because of the absence of a school nearby (Morsy and Mukasa, 2019_[8]).

Structural challenges and the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic have affected Africa’s students, especially learners with low socio-economic status. Prevalent challenges to educational quality include a lack of basic and advanced pedagogical resources, deficits in physical infrastructure, a shortage of qualified teachers and teacher absenteeism, as well as limited access to pre-primary education (Gruijters and Behrman, 2020_[35]; PASEC, 2020_[36]; OECD, 2017_[13]; SACMEQ, 2017_[37]). The COVID-19 pandemic has set learning back by about 0.5 to 2 years, hitting students with low socio-economic status the hardest (Moscoviz and Evans, 2022_[38]; Kadzamira et al., 2021_[39]).

Limited funds have resulted in fewer students attending resource-intensive educational programmes, such as STEM degrees. African policy makers and educational institutions often have to choose between investing in inclusion or in selective excellence in technical disciplines. Over 2015-23, an average of 20% of African students enrolled in tertiary education graduated with STEM degrees, compared to an average of about 25% in developing Asia and high-income countries.

More girls are out of school than boys, and rural children in general have less access to education than those in urban areas. In large parts of Africa, the rate of out-of-school primary-aged children is 4.2 percentage points higher for girls than for boys (UNESCO, 2022_[33]). Access to school infrastructure and services is also unequal between rural and urban populations: children in rural areas benefit from, on average, 3.4 years less of education than children in cities (Figure 1.6). The share of the population without any formal education is 13% in urban areas, compared to 42% in rural areas (OECD/UNECA/AfDB, 2022_[40]).

Figure 1.6. Disparities in educational outcomes across genders and rural and urban areas in Africa

Informal employment dominates in rural agriculture and urban services, and informal female and male workers are concentrated in different sectors. Informal employment – jobs that are not subject to national labour laws, income taxation or social protection – is particularly prevalent in rural areas where it accounts for about 92% of Africa’s total employment, compared to some 72% in urban areas. Over half of rural workers (around 57%) are involved in informal agricultural activities, while about 46% of urban workers are informally employed in services (ILO, 2023_[42]). Informal female workers tend to concentrate in retail trade, hotels and restaurants, garments, health, education, and social services. In contrast, informal male workers are more likely to work in agriculture, forestry and fishing, construction, transport, manufacturing, or other industries (Carranza, Dhakal and Love, 2018_[43]; AfDB/OECD/UNDP, 2017_[44]). Labour productivity is lower for women-owned than for male-owned informal firms, due to women’s more limited access to resources such as education, managerial experience and capital (Islam and Amin, 2022_[45]).

Gender and rural-urban divides cause significant disparities in employment and remuneration (Table 1.1). The share of workers in skilled occupations is around 27% among men versus 15% among women, and 30% among urban inhabitants versus 13% among rural inhabitants. These inequalities intersect, with less than 10% of rural women found in skilled occupations compared to almost 45% of urban men (Figure 1.7). Women face more significant barriers to skills development, as discriminatory gender norms often restrict job opportunities and school or training attendance (ACET, 2022_[46]; OECD, 2022_[47]). The gender pay gap is around 30% in most African countries (UN Women, 2022_[48]). Hourly wages in rural areas are only half of those in large cities (OECD/UNECA/AfDB, 2022_[40]).

Figure 1.7. Disparities in skilled occupations across genders and rural and urban areas in Africa

Divide	Effects on skill supply and demand
Gender divide	Social norms can prevent women from accessing education, employment and training opportunities. For instance, households in Côte d’Ivoire and the United Republic of Tanzania (hereafter, Tanzania) have higher educational aspirations for boys than for girls and, in contexts of limited resources, tend to prioritise the education of the former over that of the latter (OECD, 2022_[47]; OECD, 2022_[50]). Gender gaps in completion rates are increasing as children move to higher education levels. At the primary level, eight countries achieve gender parity, while this number drops to five at the lower secondary level and to zero at the upper secondary level (UNESCO/AU, 2023_[51]). African women are 2.5 times more likely than men to contribute primarily to other family members’ livelihoods, resulting in women’s more limited individual profits and reducing their access to training and apprenticeships (ILO, 2023_[42]).
Rural-urban divide	In most countries, a large gap exists between the participation rates and learning outcomes of children in urban areas and their peers in rural areas. Children living in cities across 24 African countries benefit from 3.4 additional years of education compared to rural children. Learning outcomes across 11 African countries are also better in urban areas, with around 40% of lower secondary students achieving minimum proficiency in reading compared to less than 20% in rural areas (Figure 1.6). In rural areas, agriculture accounts for most employment opportunities (69%). The high informality rate (92%) affords limited opportunities for skills development and contributes to low labour productivity. Urban workers can access a wider set of occupations with higher productivity and earning potential (e.g. in financial services) (OECD/UNECA/AfDB, 2022_[40]). While small in most African cities, the urban formal sector is able to absorb highly educated workers and provide high skill premiums (Dimova, Nordman and Roubaud, 2010_[22]).
Informal-formal employment divide	Self-employed informal workers are required to master a wide range of skills associated with running an informal business (such as planning, delegating tasks, budgeting, pricing, handling sales and caring for customers) while lacking access or time to engage in training. Over 70% of self-employed workers in Côte d’Ivoire and Madagascar (of which over 85% are informal) do not keep written accounts (OECD, 2017_[52]).

Source: Authors’ compilation.

Africa’s slow productive transformation results in a growing informal labour force and limited opportunities for highly skilled workers

As manufacturing is not the basis for most African countries’ productive transformation, they could focus on other sectors to increase productivity and employment. Unlike other world regions, Africa’s productive transformation – the reallocation of production factors from low to high-productivity economic activities – has not been based on the growth of manufacturing (AUC/OECD, 2019_[53]; AUC/OECD, 2018_[27]; UNU-WIDER, 2018_[54]). Manufacturing growth remains limited, employing about 8% of Africa’s workforce in 2022, compared to 12% in developing Asia and as much as 19% in the People’s Republic of China (Newfarmer and Heitzig, 2023_[55]). In the absence of a significant manufacturing sector, African countries are restricted to identifying sectors to focus on, which, within national contexts, promise to combine productivity potential with employment for many (Rodrik and Stiglitz, 2024_[56]).

Figure 1.8. Value added per worker in major sectors in Africa, 2001-21

Skills development for agriculture and trade, accounting for half of Africa’s employment growth, can increase productivity for millions of workers. The agriculture, forestry and fishing sector remains the largest provider of employment in Africa, despite a decrease in its share of total employment, from 57% to 48% between 2000 and 2021. In contrast, wholesale and retail trade grew from about 19% to 24% of total employment over the same period. Together, these two sectors account for about half of the jobs created over the last two decades (Figure 1.8). Informal employment is prevalent, with vulnerable workers6 (self-employed, or own-account workers, and contributing family members) accounting for 93% of the workforce in agriculture, forestry and fishing and 84% in wholesale and retail trade (Figure 1.9). The two sectors also have the lowest education requirements (Figure 1.10). While labour productivity is unlikely to rise drastically in these sectors, skills development could achieve marginal productivity increases per worker, for a large labour force.

Figure 1.9. Evolution of employment by sector in Africa, 2001-21

Figure 1.10. Percentage of workers involved in low-, medium- and high-skilled occupations by economic activity in Africa, 2021 or latest year

The share of informal employment is likely to remain far larger than the share of formal employment, demanding a dedicated policy focus. The African continent has a higher share of informal employment than any other world region: an estimated 82% of all workers are informal, compared to 56% for Latin America and the Caribbean and 73% for developing Asia. The share of youth not in employment, education or training across 12 African countries7 averages 7 percentage points higher for young people from fully informal households (i.e. “households where all family members are working informally”) than those from fully formal ones (OECD, 2024_[59]). Despite wide-ranging policy efforts to increase the share of formal wage employment, the share of vulnerable workers among the working population (used as an approximation of informal employment) has only marginally decreased over the past 20 years (Figure 1.1, Panel A). Under current trends, by 2040, vulnerable workers will continue to make up the majority of employment in Africa (AUC/OECD, 2021_[7]). Accordingly, while efforts to upgrade from informal to formal employment remain necessary, addressing skill gaps, low productivity and inter-generational social mobility of informal workers requires dedicated policy responses.

Informal workers face barriers to skills development such as little education, limited resources and inaccessible professional training (OECD, 2024_[59]). Acquiring skills seems linked more directly with growth, productivity and innovation in the informal than in the formal sector (Adams, Johansson de Silva and Razmara, 2013_[60]). Nevertheless, in practice, informal workers are far less likely to access education and training. In 2019, roughly 68% of informal workers in Africa had completed only primary or no education, compared to 26% of workers in formal employment. The proportion of women in informal employment with no formal education was 14.3 percentage points higher than the corresponding proportion among men (ILO, 2023_[42]). Fewer financial resources and lower educational levels limit the propensity to access formal training programmes and acquire additional skills (Aleksynska and Kolev, 2021_[11]). Data across ten African countries indicate that 43% to 68% of workers in informal employment earn less than half the median national earnings (OECD, 2024_[59]). Evidence across eight African countries shows that less than 5% of surveyed informal workers participate in job-related professional training over the course of a year. Depending on the country, this rate is 3 to 15 times lower than for formal workers (ILO, 2023_[61]). In Ghana and Tanzania, around 90% of vocational training or skills development programme beneficiaries are formal workers (OECD, 2024_[59]).

Due to limited formal job opportunities, employees are more likely than self-employed workers to be overeducated and over-skilled. The scarcity of formal job opportunities implies that, in comparison to informal workers, formal workers are more likely to accept positions for which they are overeducated (Aleksynska and Kolev, 2021_[11]). Forty-one per cent of African employees hold an occupation matching their education level, compared to 49% in developing Asia and 57% in Latin America and the Caribbean (Figure 1.11). While undereducation remains the prevalent form of mismatch for employees, 16% of them are overeducated for their position, compared to only 7% of self-employed workers. In contrast, about 68% of self-employed workers in Africa (mostly informal) are underqualified for their occupation, compared to 52% in developing Asia and 38% in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Figure 1.11. Percentage of workers who have an equal, higher or lower level of education than required for their occupation, by world region, 2022 or latest year available

Highly skilled workers and students tend to move out of Africa, suggesting greater professional and educational opportunities abroad. Low-skilled migrants from African countries mostly remain within the continent, with skills development figuring as only one out of a range of factors underlying migration decisions (Annex 1.A). For highly skilled migrants, skill-based employment opportunities represent a more important factor. In 2020, 74% of highly educated migrant workers opted to move to another continent;8 the vast majority (98%) chose high-income countries as a destination (i.e. a total of 72% of all highly educated migrants). East Africa has experienced the highest outflow of highly educated workers of all African regions. Forty-seven per cent of tertiary-educated individuals born in East Africa resided abroad in 2020, of which 53% had moved to high-income countries and 46% to another African country. Close to 600 000 African students in tertiary education (3.3% of all tertiary-level students) left to pursue their studies in another country in 2021. This rate is greater than in developing Asia (1.8%) and Latin America and the Caribbean (1%).9 LinkedIn data reveal that employees with skills in advanced technologies (such as mobile application development or artificial intelligence) and working in globalised professional industries (e.g. higher education, research or computer software) migrate out of the continent, likely due to better pay and career opportunities. Conversely, African employees with managerial or common technological skills are more likely to move to other African countries (World Bank, 2023_[63]).

Figure 1.12. Net international migration of African LinkedIn users by top five and bottom five skills and industries, 2015-19

As African economies diversify, workers need more soft, business and sector-specific technical skills to increase productivity and technology adoption

Agrarian and diversifying African economies require different skills. As economies industrialise and diversify, they produce more sophisticated outputs, thus relying on wider sets of skills and higher skill levels (Lo Turco and Maggioni, 2022_[65]; WTO/ILO, 2017_[66]). The present analysis explains the importance of skills in an economy by mapping occupations onto the skills required to perform them, using O*Net, an occupation-skills database developed in the United States. Despite its limitations, this approach is useful for broad-based comparative analysis of skill requirements across African countries (Annex 1.B). Two groups, each composed of 5 African countries, represent the least and most diversified occupational structures in the dataset of 31 African countries (Figure 1.13):

Agrarian economies include Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda. In these countries, over 60% of workers are involved in the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector. These economies are all least developed countries.
Diversifying economies include Egypt, Eswatini, Mauritius, Senegal and Tunisia. These countries have the lowest share of workers involved in elementary occupations10 or agriculture, forestry and fishery. They demonstrate productive transformation levels that are higher than Africa’s average (ACET, 2023_[67]), and they have the highest levels of industrial development on the continent (AfDB/AUC/UNIDO, 2022_[68]).

Figure 1.13. Labour force breakdown by occupation in selected African countries, 2021 or latest year available

Foundational and soft skills enable Africans to earn more, be more productive and acquire complementary skills, especially in diversifying economies

Foundational and soft skills increase in importance as African countries diversify, often matching or surpassing technical skill requirements. Skill requirements and gaps for different types of skills vary across African countries and sectors (Table 1.2). On average, on a 100-point scale, foundational and soft skill requirements are 3.8 points higher in the most diversified African economies than in those relying primarily on agricultural employment (Figure 1.14). Nationally representative surveys of formal and informal firms employing youth in Benin, Liberia, Malawi and Zambia suggest that these skills matter at least as much as technical skills for hiring decisions (Arias, Evans and Santos, 2019_[69]; Cunningham and Villasenor, 2014_[70]). Similarly, basic digital skills and soft skills like analytical thinking, creativity, curiosity, leadership, resilience and self-awareness rank among the top reskilling and upskilling priorities for 2023-24 across world regions, especially in Africa (WEF, 2023_[71]). According to a study of employers across six African countries,11 almost 40% of students graduating from secondary school would require additional training in communication skills, 15-20% in social and leadership skills and about 11% in analytical and problem-solving skills (ACET, 2023_[72]).

Priorities	Skill gaps	Evidence
1. Foundational and soft skills	Foundational and soft skills strongly influence a worker’s ability to accumulate other types of skills later.	Weak foundational and soft skills lessen the gains from technical training (Levin et al., 2023_[73]). For instance, a study from Tanzania found that science-oriented and problem-solving skills were the most sought-after by employers in agriculture and required students in technical and vocational education and training to have solid foundational and soft skills (Takei, 2016_[74]).
2. Managerial and entrepreneurial skills	Missing managerial and entrepreneurial skills impede the growth and productivity of large and small businesses.	Employers across nine African countries indicated that the need for training for administrative and managerial skills trumped that for technical and digital skills. Administrative and managerial skills were also most commonly identified as lacking by unemployed workers (ILO, 2022_[75]).
3. Technical skills based on demand from local industries	Job-specific and technical knowledge is required for competitiveness and productivity.	Employer surveys across six African countries show that almost 50% of students graduating from secondary school do not possess adequate technical skills and would need to be retrained on the job (ACET, 2023_[67]).

Source: Authors’ compilation.

Figure 1.14. Importance of foundational and soft skills in selected agrarian and diversifying African economies and other world regions

African workers with higher foundational and soft skills earn more and are more productive. For instance, in Ghana and Kenya, comparable surveys show that literate workers earn a wage premium of about 30%. In manufacturing, evidence from over 7 600 firms across 27 African countries shows that a 10 percentage point increase in the share of employees with high school and university degrees (a proxy of foundational and soft skills) is associated with an increase in average firm productivity (sales per worker) by 4.2% and 4.8%, respectively (Okumu and Mawejje, 2020_[77]).

Higher foundational and soft skills also improve workers’ capacity to acquire new skills. Farmers’ skills explain 12-17% of variation in maize yields in Kenya, with foundational and soft skills strongly influencing their ability to accumulate technical skills (Laajaj and Macours, 2017_[78]). In Malawi, farmers with soft skills (such as perseverance) were more likely to adopt new cash crops and acquire technical knowledge (Montalvao et al., 2017_[79]). A cross-country study based on income and educational attainment data of workers across sectors in Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania showed that productivity returns to additional education or training were higher when workers had better foundational skills (Fasih et al., 2012_[80]).

Technical skills are needed to support growth and productivity in dynamic sectors

STEM skills can help develop technology-intensive value chains, but Africa has low numbers of STEM graduates and engineering professionals. Skills in mathematics, engineering and technology, computer and electronics, and design are on average 4.7 points more important in diversifying African economies than in agrarian ones (Figure 1.15). Workers with STEM skills can support the development of technology-intensive value chains such as automotive, electronics, solar panels, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, and mining (UNCTAD, 2023_[81]; Dugbazah et al., 2021_[82]). Yet, the rate of STEM tertiary education graduates varies widely across Africa, with only Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritius and Morocco showing STEM graduation rates of above 20%, coupled with large overall tertiary enrolment (Figure 1.16). African countries have a limited number of engineering professionals per capita, ranging from 540 practitioners per 100 000 inhabitants in the Seychelles to less than 45 in the DR Congo, Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique. This compares to 1 160 engineering professionals in the United Kingdom and 850 in the United States (UNESCO/ICEE, 2021_[83]; SADC, 2018_[84]).

Figure 1.15. Importance of business and managerial skills and technical skills in selected agrarian and diversifying African economies and other world regions

Figure 1.16. Percentage of tertiary education graduates from programmes in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and gross tertiary enrolment rates in African countries, average 2015-23

Improving agricultural productivity and enhancing agro-processing hinge on technical skills. As would be expected, on average, technical skills in food production, mechanics, biology and geography are more important in agrarian than in diversifying economies (Figure 1.16). According to a survey of over 200 African technical and vocational education and training (TVET) stakeholders (mostly government bodies and TVET providers), agriculture represents the sector with the greatest need for new technical qualifications (Allais, 2023_[86]). Research on Rwanda’s agri-food systems finds skill gaps in crop planting techniques, harvest and post-harvest, and knowledge of and compliance with standards in food processing and conditioning (PSF, 2021_[87]). In Ethiopia, 80% of surveyed firms stress the need for technical skills to support the development of agro-processing activities in edible oil, poultry, floriculture, and fruits and vegetables (ILO, 2021_[88]). In North Africa, increased consumption of processed food products is driving demand for skills in baking, cheesemaking, fruit drying, gastronomy, pastry making, and the packaging of ready-to-eat products (OECD, 2023_[89]; OECD et al., 2021_[90]).

Closing managerial and entrepreneurial skill gaps can increase labour productivity and technology adoption

Business and managerial skills are key to increasing firm productivity and encouraging the adoption of technology across sectors. While skills in administrative functions are more important in diversifying than in agrarian African economies (by about 9.6 points), other business and managerial skills, such as sales, marketing, finance and accounting, are equally important in both types of economies (Figure 1.15). Currently, managerial skills are often missing in African countries compared to other world regions, lowering firm performance (Lemos and Daniela, 2015_[91]). For instance, research across 200 manufacturing firms in Zambia demonstrated that quality managerial practices significantly improved firm productivity and profitability (Grayson, Nyamazana and Funkila-Mulenga, 2016_[92]). Cross-country surveys on firm-level adoption of technology show that firms using more sophisticated technologies require more managers with advanced degrees. However, the same data also highlight the relative scarcity of better-trained managers in Africa, impeding technology adoption (Begazo, Blimpo and Dutz, 2023_[93]).

Informal entrepreneurs often struggle to master the range of skills needed to run their businesses. Africa has the highest share of adults in the process of starting or running new businesses of all world regions (OECD/AfDB/UNDP, 2017_[94]). A range of skills – from project planning to delegation of tasks and sales – are important for entrepreneurs to be able to grow their businesses but are often missing for informal enterprises in developing countries (Magidi and Mahiya, 2021_[95]). For instance, over 70% of self-employed workers in Côte d’Ivoire and Madagascar (of which over 85% are informal) do not keep written accounts (OECD, 2017_[52]). Similarly, surveys across seven African capital cities showed that the share of informal business owners preparing a profit and loss statement at least once a year varies from around 40% in Khartoum (Sudan) and Mogadishu (Somalia) to less than 10% in Maputo (Mozambique) (World Bank, 2023_[96]).

Digital skills are in demand across the continent, while the need for green skills will increase with climate challenges

The digital and green transitions represent unique opportunities for skills development in African countries and make it an urgent priority. With the digital revolution and climate change, African countries are facing two fundamental transformations that require them to equip their workforce with digital and green skills. These transitions have generated new job opportunities and are also reshaping the future of work and, with it, the demand for and supply of skills (Nedelkoska and Quintini, 2018_[97]).

Basic and intermediate digital skills are in high demand across African countries, while the demand for and supply of advanced digital skills remain scarce

Digital skills refer to abilities to productively use digital technologies, such as the Internet, software applications, smartphones and computers. They can be categorised into three levels of sophistication: basic, intermediate and advanced (Table 1.3). In African countries, the demand for and supply of skills are diverse, with each country having unique challenges and strengths (Chapter 5).

Digital infrastructure has improved across the continent, but Internet connections remain slow or inaccessible in many parts of Africa. Adequate and reliable Internet access is fundamental for the digital sector and digital skills development (World Bank, 2020_[98]). It can also support innovative approaches to education, such as online learning (Box 1.3). Africa’s Internet penetration has more than doubled since 2015 and increased fivefold since 2010.12 Despite these improvements, in 2016-18, only 28% of Africa’s population had Internet access, compared to 58% in Latin America and the Caribbean and 41% in developing Asia. Similarly, broadband Internet speeds are still slow. In January 2024, the average download speed was 23 megabits per second (Mbps) in Africa, compared to 78 Mbps in Latin America and the Caribbean and 54 Mbps in developing Asia.13

	Basic digital skills (e.g. smartphone use, e-mail, basic file management, web browsing, mobile communication)	Intermediate digital skills (e.g. use of multiple devices, e-commerce and financial software, professional social media, data entry and management)	Advanced digital skills (e.g. web design, programming, AI development, data science)
Demand	Very large demand 70% of demand for digital skills is expected to be for basic digital skills by 2030 (World Bank, 2021_[99]).	Large demand 23% of demand for digital skills is expected to be for intermediate skills by 2030 (World Bank, 2021_[99]).	Emerging demand While AI markets are more mature in high-income economies, some African countries are emerging as regional AI leaders (World Bank, 2021_[99]).
Supply	Growing supply 26.4% of the African population knows how to use a mobile money account. Across 15 African countries, 9% of the young population possesses basic digital skills (Authors’ calculations based on World Bank (2021_[100]); and UNICEF (2022_[101])).	Limited supply 5% of the young population possesses intermediate digital skills across 15 African countries (Authors’ calculation based on UNICEF (2022_[101])).	Scarce supply Africa comprises only 1.3% of global users of GitHub – a widely used platform for program developers (OECD et al., 2021_[90]).

Basic digital skills

(e.g. smartphone use, e-mail, basic file management, web browsing, mobile communication)

Intermediate digital skills

(e.g. use of multiple devices, e-commerce and financial software, professional social media, data entry and management)

Advanced digital skills

(e.g. web design, programming, AI development, data science)

Demand

Very large demand

70% of demand for digital skills is expected to be for basic digital skills by 2030 (World Bank, 2021_[99]).

Large demand

23% of demand for digital skills is expected to be for intermediate skills by 2030 (World Bank, 2021_[99]).

Emerging demand

While AI markets are more mature in high-income economies, some African countries are emerging as regional AI leaders (World Bank, 2021_[99]).

Supply

Growing supply

26.4% of the African population knows how to use a mobile money account. Across 15 African countries, 9% of the young population possesses basic digital skills (Authors’ calculations based on World Bank (2021_[100]); and UNICEF (2022_[101])).

Limited supply

5% of the young population possesses intermediate digital skills across 15 African countries (Authors’ calculation based on UNICEF (2022_[101])).

Scarce supply

Africa comprises only 1.3% of global users of GitHub – a widely used platform for program developers (OECD et al., 2021_[90]).

Note: AI – artificial intelligence.

Source: Authors’ compilation.

Box 1.3. Massive open online courses and e-learning in Africa

Online learning increasingly offers an alternative to traditional education in Africa. The continent’s demand for online learning is on the rise. The percentage of users within the total population is estimated to increase from 1.5% in 2024 to 1.8% by 2028, reaching 25 million users by 2028 (Statista, 2023_[102]). Massive open online courses (MOOCs) provide digital access to learning content and materials offered from anywhere in the world. MOOCs thereby have the potential to address some of the shortcomings in African education, such as overcrowded classrooms, missing infrastructure and high costs of education (Ochieng’, Mutisya and Thiong’o, 2022_[103]).

While there is a strong demand for MOOCs in Africa, the number of African MOOCs remains low. In 2015, Africans took 13% to 20% of MOOCs offered by the Francophone University Agency (AUF) – a global leading association of higher education institutions (Rimondi, 2015_[104]). However, the continent designs and produces a small percentage of the world’s MOOCs: 98% of existing MOOCs were produced mainly by public or private universities in high-income countries (Elongué, 2021_[105]).

Civil society is offering solutions to meet the growing demand for e-learning. Start-ups increasingly supply e-learning, in the form of courses delivered through community-based mobile applications and online platforms, especially in East Africa (AU-Startups, 2023_[106]). In the most rural areas of Uganda, where Internet-based education is not possible, distance learning has developed through sponsored educational radio broadcasts by local non-governmental organisations (Vincent-Lancrin, Cobo Romaní and Reimers, 2022_[107]).

Surveys show large gaps in the supply of digital skills across the continent, sometimes forcing employers to recruit internationally. Recent surveys of employees and employers led in nine African countries indicate both an increasing demand for and a short supply of digital skills, especially in high-skilled occupations (ILO, 2022_[75]). In Ghana, the supply gap for digital skills is driving employers to recruit internationally. Survey findings from 2019 show that nearly 20% of surveyed Ghanaian companies recruit employees with digital skills only internationally, and of these, nearly 70% do so because they cannot find skilled local talent (IFC, 2019_[108]). In another survey, companies in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa identified the limited availability of skills as a major challenge, with 97% of firms stating that they expected to have difficulties in recruiting and retaining skilled digital workers (SAP, 2023_[29]).

The demand for basic digital skills in Africa is on the rise. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for basic digital skills, as firms were pushed to digitalise their operations (AUC/OECD, 2021_[7]). Even after the pandemic, the number of jobs requiring the performance of digital tasks will continue to grow quickly. By 2030, 70% of this new demand across much of the continent will be for basic digital skills (World Bank, 2021_[99]). In countries leading Africa’s digital transformation, like Kenya, by 2030, 50-55% of all jobs (or 21 million workers) may require basic digital skills, driven by the expansion of the domestic digital sector and start-up ecosystem. In economies less reliant on the digital sector such as Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Rwanda, 35% to 45% of jobs are expected to require basic digital skills. Among the jobs requiring basic digital skills in 2030, 54% will be in services, 35% in agriculture and 11% in industry (Figure 1.17).

The demand for intermediate and advanced digital skills is growing across all sectors, particularly in services. Intermediate digital skills enable the use of digital technology for task-oriented purposes and for specific occupations and professions. In 2022, 93% of firms in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa reported that the need for intermediate digital skills had increased over the past 12 months, with not one participating enterprise indicating that the need had decreased (SAP, 2023_[29]). By 2030, most of the jobs needing intermediate and advanced digital skills will be in the service sector (Figure 1.17).

Figure 1.17. Jobs requiring digital skills in 2030 in five African countries, by skill level

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is beginning to increase the demand for advanced digital skills in Africa. Technological progress in automation, robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and biotechnology is poised to redefine labour markets globally. While so far the 4IR is predominantly affecting high-income countries, digital skill demand in Africa is increasing through online labour (Box 1.4). African firms have accelerated their adoption of AI in recent years (PCNS, 2023_[109]), increasing the demand for AI skills. In a survey of representatives of UNESCO’s 32 African member states, 27 out of 32 declared that updating education, skills and training systems for imparting AI skills and knowledge is a priority (UNESCO, 2021_[110]). Currently, however, there are significant differences in AI adoption across countries (Figure 1.18). In the 2023, AI Readiness Index, Africa has an average score of 31.6. For comparison, the first country in the global ranking is the United States, with 84.8 points, and at the bottom stands North Korea, with 9.2 points.

Figure 1.18. Differences in adoption of artificial intelligence across African countries and other world regions

Box 1.4. The artificial intelligence revolution and online labour

Some African countries contribute significantly to the global supply of online labour. African online workers can benefit from the globally rising demand for digital tasks. With 70% of online workers being software developers, Africa was supplying 5.5% of the world’s online labour force in 2020, lower than the 65.5% in developing Asia, but above the 3.5% in Latin America and the Caribbean.1 However, African online workers represented less than 0.1% of the continent’s overall labour force in 2020, despite differences across African countries (Figure 1.19).

Artificial intelligence can improve online workers’ productivity. Recent studies have found that AI can increase the productivity of online digital workers by cutting routine tasks. A randomised controlled trial of 640 Kenyan micro, small and medium-sized enterprises found that business owners could benefit from conversations with the chatbot GPT-4 (Otis et al., 2023_[112]). In the Philippines, using GPT-4, low-skilled online workers increased their productivity by 34% and average skilled workers by 14%, while the most skilled showed only negligible improvements (Brynjolfsson, Li and Raymond, 2023_[113]). Together, these findings suggest that generative AI could boost productivity, especially that of low-skilled, vulnerable African online workers, given that it does not require new infrastructure and is intuitive to use.

Figure 1.19. Shares of online workers across selected African countries, 2020

1. Authors’ calculation based on Stephany et al. (2021_[115]).

Africans’ basic digital skills vary, and intermediate and advanced digital skills remain scarce. On average across 30 African countries, 26.4% of the population knows how to use a mobile money account without any help compared to 16% in Latin America and the Caribbean and 11% in developing Asia and at a global level (World Bank, 2021_[100]).14 However, computer skills (a subset of all digital skills) are scarcer (Figure 1.20). Currently, only 9% of the population aged 15-24 in 15 African countries for which data are available possesses at least basic computer skills – 10% of the male workforce and 7% of the female workforce. Only 1% of the young population in Chad and 2% in the Central African Republic have basic computer skills, while the figure reaches 33% in Tunisia. Intermediate computer skills are scarcer, remaining below 13% in all countries for which data are available, except for Tunisia, Algeria and Zimbabwe (23%, 19% and 17%, respectively). While growing, advanced computer skills remain limited: 2% of workers have programming skills. Only 1.3% of global users of GitHub – a widely used platform for program developers – reside in Africa, compared to 37% for Europe and 23% for Asia (OECD et al., 2021_[90]).

Figure 1.20. Computer skill differences among 15-24 year olds by gender in selected African countries

Addressing climate change can create jobs and raise Africa’s productivity in key sectors, but more green skills are needed

Mitigating and adapting to climate change can create jobs that require new skills. Producing less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions created by human activity, Africa is the world region that contributes the least to climate change; yet it is the most vulnerable and most exposed to its consequences (IPCC, 2022_[116]). In 2022, climate and water-related hazards in Africa caused more than USD 8.5 billion in economic damages (WMO, 2023_[117]). Notwithstanding, a green transition could create job and growth opportunities in Africa. Climate change mitigation efforts, such as the move towards renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure, could generate over 9 million job opportunities from 2019 to 2030 and a further 3 million jobs by 2050 (IRENA/AfDB, 2022_[118]). Adaptation measures, including improved climate literacy and climate-smart agriculture, can increase productivity and provide additional employment opportunities (IPCC, 2022_[116]; Williams et al., 2021_[119]). These transformations not only create new jobs, they also change existing ones and demand new soft and technical skill sets (ILO, 2015_[120]).

Adopting new skilled practices will allow agricultural workers to better respond to climate change and boost productivity. Agriculture is the sector with the greatest need for new technical qualifications and complementary green skills (Allais, 2023_[86]). Innovative green agriculture techniques require a workforce equipped with skills to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change. Green solutions for agriculture should be based on climate-smart agricultural practices that address climate change and food security. Examples of these practices are diversifying crops, advancing agriculture through technology (agri-tech) and reducing emissions from farming practices through agroforestry (Williams et al., 2021_[119]). Adopting such agricultural practices can boost productivity and contribute to the sustainability of land use. For instance, in East and Southern Africa, agricultural productivity could double or triple if better farm inputs and production technologies were adopted, water and soil resources were used more efficiently, and natural capital and ecosystems were restored (World Bank, 2022_[121]).

Climate change literacy remains limited. Climate change literacy involves understanding both climate change and its human-caused origins, forming the basis for informed actions in both mitigation and adaptation (Simpson et al., 2021_[122]). While about six in ten Africans (58%) have heard of climate change, only one in four (28%) also understands it to have negative consequences and recognises it as caused in part by human activity. Groups that are less familiar with the concept of climate change include rural residents, women, the poor and the less educated, as well as people who work in agriculture. Countries such as Liberia, Niger and Sudan are among the most vulnerable to climate change while showing some of the lowest levels of climate change awareness (Selormey et al., 2019_[123]).

The renewable energy sector has strong job creation potential, but the lack of clean energy skills is hindering its growth. In 2020, renewable energies, such as of hydro, geothermal, solar and wind power, accounted for over 55% of the total primary energy supply in 34 African countries (OECD, 2023_[124]). Transitioning jobs from fossil fuel to clean energy sectors is already happening in Africa. Between 2019 and 2022, around 400 000 clean energy jobs were created in the continent, while around 200 000 jobs in fossil fuels disappeared. Yet, skilled labour shortages have limited the economic gains of the renewable energy sector. An important reason is its demand for highly skilled workers, which is higher than that of any other industry in the economy. Thirty-six per cent of the global energy workforce typically requires some form of tertiary education, and 51% vocational training. Many key shortages in skilled labour in the clean energy sector are found in vocational roles. These mid-skilled roles often require specialised training beyond typical energy-related jobs. For instance, heating, ventilation and air conditioning specialists may need to retrain for heat pump installation, while electricians may require training in battery or solar installation (IEA, 2023_[125]).

Jobs in infrastructure and construction need green skills, and African cities offer a skilled workforce. Infrastructure is responsible for 79% of all greenhouse gas emissions and 88% of all adaptation costs (Thacker et al., 2021_[126]). Resource-efficient buildings can reduce the negative impacts of climate change. Since 80% of the buildings that will exist in 2050 in Africa are yet to be built (World Green Building Council, 2023_[127]), construction skills should focus on such green buildings. Africa already has skilled construction workers in cities; it has a greater availability of skilled labour in the construction sector than in other world regions. Of the 9 African cities in a global survey of 89 large cities, 6 had a surplus of skilled construction workers, while only 2 had skill shortages. This stands against a global skill shortage rate of 74% (Turner & Townsend, 2023_[128]).15

Africa’s waste management sector is poised to grow – creating new jobs. Efficient recycling and waste management practices are needed to minimise environmental pollution. An estimated 70-80% of municipal solid waste generated in Africa is recyclable, while only 4% is recycled (UNEP, 2020_[129]). Rapid urbanisation and buoyant economic activity further increase the need for recycling and waste-to-energy activities, with the continent’s waste management sector projected to grow at an annual rate of 5% by 2029 (Mordor Intelligence, 2023_[130]). Similarly, the circular economy can generate numerous additional economic opportunities in this sector and beyond (Never, 2023_[131]).

Annex 1.A. The nexus of migration and skills in Africa

African workers who migrate to other African countries tend to be low-educated and migrate for higher pay. International migration decisions are complex, being influenced by factors such as demographic, sociocultural, political, environmental and economic conditions in the migrant’s home country (push factors) and destination country (pull factors). A key motivation for African workers’ migrating is the prospect of higher earnings abroad (De Vreyer, Gubert and Roubaud, 2010_[132]). Rural, low-skilled Africans often move to nearby countries, due to labour demand in sectors such as construction, private household services and trade, and seasonal agriculture, while keeping migration costs low (OECD/ILO, 2017_[133]; Mercandalli, 2017_[134]). In 2020, more than half (57%) of African migrants with secondary education or less moved within the continent (Annex Figure 1.A.1, Panel B), amounting to more than double Latin America and the Caribbean’s intra-regional migration rate (27%) (World Bank, 2023_[135]).

Africa’s high-educated migrants generally leave the continent, which can sometimes benefit their countries of origin. High-educated migrants tend to leave Africa (Annex Figure 1.A.1, Panel A). However, when workers return from abroad, they can help enrich skill sets in their home countries (OECD, 2017_[136]).

Annex Figure 1.A.1. Africa’s stocks of high- and low-educated migrants per region of origin and destination, in thousands, 2020

Over one-third of intra-Africa labour migrants work in agriculture, and around a third of the continent’s medium- and low-skilled workers migrate to the same two regions. Between 2017 and 2021, the largest share of African immigrants in the continent was employed in agriculture (34.5%), followed by services and trade (22.3%) and other elementary occupations (19.6%). East and West Africa emerged as the primary destinations for low-educated workers from other African countries. In 2020, East Africa welcomed 30% of the low-educated workforce and West Africa 35% (Annex Figure 1.A.1, Panel B). This influx is potentially driven by the significant role of agriculture, which attracts a considerable labour force, and its contribution to the value chains in both regions (AUC/OECD, 2022_[32]). Intra-African migrants tend to hold more high-skilled occupations than do the local host populations. Nine African countries out of 13 have a larger share of immigrant workers in high-skill occupations than the share of the native populations (Annex Figure 1.A.2).

Annex Figure 1.A.2. Occupational skills of immigrants and natives across selected African countries

Annex 1.B. Analysis of skill importance using labour force statistics and the O*NET database

The methodology used in this report to assess the country profiles of skill requirements relies on two main data sources:

The United States Occupational Information Network (O*NET) database contains detailed occupation-specific information on skill requirements by occupation from standardised questionnaires filled out by American workers with over six months of seniority at business establishments statistically selected from a random sample. Each dimension in O*NET is attributed categorical values to their “importance” for the job. Respondents indicate the importance of a given skill for their job on a scale from one (not important) to five (extremely important).
The harmonised labour force statistics of the International Labour Organization (ILO) derived from national labour force statistics available for 31 African countries provide detailed information on employment structure by occupation.

To compute weighted skill importance scores, the analysis used the following approach:

First, importance scores were standardised for each occupation. Standardised score = 100* ((O - L)/(H - L)) where O is the original rating score, L is the lowest possible score (1) and H is the highest possible score on the rating scale used (5).
Second, O*NET occupation classifications (O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy) (Annex Table 1.B.1) at the six-digit level were converted to the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-08) at the two-digit level through available crosswalks.
Third, O*NET skill importance scores by occupations were matched to labour force statistics from ILO.
Fourth, weighted skill importance scores were computed, using the share of employed people by occupation as a weight.

Caveats and limitations of this approach

While several studies have applied O*NET to the assessment of occupations in low-income countries (Arias, 2014_[137]; Aedo et al., 2013_[138]; Aedo, 2012_[139]), the skill content of certain occupations might differ between low- and high-income countries like the United States, as countries differ significantly in terms of technology and regulatory context.
The present analysis focused on two groups of African economies (agrarian and diversifying). This choice was made partly because skill importance scores are derived from surveyed United States workers. As skill importance scores vary across countries according to occupational structures, a significant difference between groups was required to obtain distinct average skill importance scores.

Broad skills category	Skills	Description
Foundational skills	Mathematics	Using mathematics to solve problems.
	Reading comprehension	Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
	Speaking	Talking to others to convey information effectively.
	Writing	Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
Soft skills	Active listening	Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
	Active learning	Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
	Critical thinking	Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or problem approaches.
	Learning strategies	Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
	Monitoring	Monitoring/assessing the performance of yourself, other individuals or organisations to make improvements or take corrective action.
	Complex problem-solving	Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
	Time management	Managing one’s own time and the time of others.
	Co-ordination	Adjusting actions in relation to others’ actions.
	Instructing	Teaching others how to do something.
	Negotiation	Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
	Persuasion	Persuading others to change their minds or behaviour.
	Service orientation	Actively looking for ways to help people.
	Social perceptiveness	Being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
Business and managerial skills	Administration and management	Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modelling, leadership technique, production methods, and co-ordination of people and resources.
	Administrative	Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms and workplace terminology.
	Customer and personal service	Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
	Finance and accounting	Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
	Personnel and human resources	Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labour relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
	Sales and marketing	Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
Technical skills	Building and construction	Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
	Computers and electronics	Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
	Design	Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in the production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings and models.
	Engineering and technology	Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
	Mechanical	Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair and maintenance.
	Biology	Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
	Chemistry	Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques and disposal methods.
	Geography	Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal and human life.
	Mathematics	Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics and their applications.
	Physics	Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
	Food production	Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
	Production and processing	Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximising the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
	Transportation	Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea or road, including the relative costs and benefits.

Source: Authors’ selection based on O*NET OnLine (2023_[76]), O*NET Data (database), https://www.onetonline.org.

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[121] World Bank (2022), Seizing the Agri-Food Opportunity in Eastern and Southern Africa, https://blogs.worldbank.org/africacan/seizing-agri-food-opportunity-eastern-and-southern-africa.

[99] World Bank (2021), Demand for Digital Skills in Sub-Saharan Africa, World Bank Group, https://www.datocms-assets.com/37703/1623797656-demand-for-digital-skills-in-sub-saharan-africa.pdf.

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Notes

← 1. Authors’ calculations based on UN DESA (2022_[143]).

← 2. Benin, the Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia are covered in the study (Morsy and Mukasa, 2019_[8]).

← 3. Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Niger, Rwanda and Uganda are considered in these studies (ACET, 2022_[9])

← 4. Compare https://cieffa.au.int/sites/default/files/files/2021-09/continental-strategy-education-africa-english.pdf and https://au.int/en/documents/20201107/african-decade-technical-professional-entrepreneurial-training-and-youth.

← 5. Authors’ calculations based on Cummins (2021_[148]).

← 6. Vulnerable employment refers to the sum of (i) self-employed (own-account) workers and (ii) contributing family workers. The measure includes formal self-employed workers and excludes informal wage-employed workers. As such, it is an approximation of informal employment, especially in economies where the vast majority of self-employed workers are informal and the number of informal employed workers is low, which applies to most African countries (World Bank, n.d._[146]; ILO, 2018_[141]). In this report, vulnerable employment is used only to show broad trends and patterns, when data on informal employment are limited or missing.

← 7. Egypt, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Tanzania.

← 8. Authors’ calculations based on World Bank (2023_[64]).

← 9. Authors’ calculations based on UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2023_[85]).

← 10. Elementary occupations consist of simple and routine tasks that mainly require hand-held tools and often some physical effort. They include cleaners and helpers; agricultural, forestry and fishery labourers; labourers in mining, construction, manufacturing and transport; food preparation assistants; street and related sales and services workers; refuse workers and other elementary workers (ILO, 2012_[142]).

← 11. Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Niger, Rwanda and Uganda are covered in these studies (ACET, 2022_[9]).

← 12. Authors’ calculation based on International Telecommunication Union (2023_[147]).

← 13. Authors’ calculation based on fixed broadband Internet speed from Ookla (2024_[144]).

← 14. Authors’ calculations based on World Bank (2021_[100]).

← 15. Authors’ calculation based on Turner & Townsend (2023_[128]).

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