The African Development Bank launched its Africa Economic Outlook report a week ago, and it makes for interesting reading, especially on the issue of how African states have fared when it comes to inclusive growth that also reduces poverty and takes along its citizens. The report notes that an expected corollary of sustained growth is employment creation. However, recent high GDP growth rates in Africa have not been accompanied by high job growth. In fact, the picture is quite bleak. Between 2000 and 2008, employment grew at an annual average of 2.8%, roughly half the rate of economic growth on the continent. Only Algeria, Burundi, Botswana, Cameroon and Morocco registered employment growth of more than 4% in that period. In recent times, between 2009 and 2014, the annual average increase has improved to 3.1%, which is still 1.4% below the slow economic growth experienced in that period. This is probably the single-biggest challenge we have as a continent and a country. Of course, G...
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