{"id":910,"date":"2015-03-19T10:08:53","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T09:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/?p=910"},"modified":"2023-08-24T08:28:35","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T07:28:35","slug":"a-young-population-a-youthful-mentality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2015\/03\/19\/a-young-population-a-youthful-mentality\/","title":{"rendered":"A Young Population, a Youthful Mentality"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Africa is young, Europe is old<\/strong>“. That was one of the first conclusions I reached after a few weeks in Lagos. \u00a0I wasn’t thinking just in terms of the age of the population, more in terms of the spirit and outlook I saw there. Africans are bursting with youth and energy<\/strong> which is why I delighted in the news I read a few days ago about a 92-year-old Kenyan lady<\/a> who is going to elementary school.<\/strong> It is a clear sign of the youthful spirit of African people. In business, both demographic and mental youthfulness are highly valuable <\/span><\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Youthfulness<\/a>
Youthfulness (my favorite picture from Nairobi)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(1) Some interesting demographics for sub-Saharan Africa<\/strong>:*<\/p>\n

-total population: 940 million in 2013<\/strong>, up from 270 million in 2000; and it is estimated to reach 1 billion in 2030, and 1.75 billion in 2040<\/strong>; (see related post on increasing urbanization<\/a>).<\/p>\n

-75% of the population is under 35<\/strong>, which is estimated to drop to 70% by 2030 (these figures include North Africa);<\/p>\n

-life expectancy has increased from 49.5 in 2000 to 55 in 2013, and it is expected to reach 64 by 2030;<\/p>\n

-the population growth rate is forecast at 2.6% until 2020 and 2.2% from 2030 onward;<\/p>\n

(2) Some of the signs of a youthful mentality<\/strong> that I saw while visiting Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana:<\/p>\n

-Africans\u00a0are eager to take their countries to the next level:<\/strong> with this purpose in mind, a number of initiatives (e.g., Africa 2.0<\/a>; Africa Leadership Network<\/a>) focus on developing the next generation of African leaders;<\/p>\n

-Africans\u00a0are extremely entrepreneurial<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 especially Nigerians, I would say: even drivers are constantly thinking of what business they might start up;<\/p>\n

–an “in-spite-of” attitude pushes\u00a0Africans\u00a0to persist in the face of manifold obstacles in\u00a0a tough environment. <\/span><\/a>\n

For a continent with a young population and a youthful mentality, where do you think the future might lie?<\/p>\n

* This information is from the World Energy Outlook 2014<\/a> (a report on the energy industry which this year contains an in-depth analysis of SSA), and from a report on Africa’s demographic trends<\/a> by the African Development Bank Group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Africa is young, Europe is old“. That was one of the first conclusions I reached after a few weeks in Lagos. \u00a0I wasn’t thinking just in terms of the age of the population, more in terms of the spirit and outlook I saw there. Africans are bursting with youth and energy which is why I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1654,"featured_media":957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247,99314],"tags":[73947,157,603,1080,73804,73948,100265],"class_list":["post-910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-strategy","category-social-and-institutional-context","tag-demographics","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-environment","tag-nigeria","tag-world-energy-outlook","tag-young","tag-youthful-mentality","megacategoria-mc-africa","megacategoria-mc-entrepreneurship","megacategoria-mc-leadership-and-people-management"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t