The MasterCard Foundation has said that addressing systemic barriers to young women’s participation in Africa’s workforce could unlock $287bn for the continent’s economy by 2030.

A MasterCard Foundation study, conducted in collaboration with McKinsey & Company, found that tackling those barriers could boost Africa’s GDP by five per cent.

The report, titled “Young Women in Africa: Agents of Economic Growth and Transformation By 2030”, underscored the role of women’s economic empowerment in driving Africa’s transformational growth.

It outlined a series of immediate, actionable solutions for government, the private sector, and civil society to reverse the steep decline of young women’s contribution to Africa’s GDP from 18 per cent in 2000 to just 11 per cent in 2022.

“The most pivotal areas to tackle include care burdens that restrict women’s access to the labour market, poor education completion rates, the need to bolster competitive skills in key sectors and adopt gender-inclusive employment policies, and lack of access to financial services,” it stated.

The report noted that effective private sector-led approaches and government-funded models focused on expanding childcare centres and employer-provided childcare could alleviate the burden of care on young women and create over 11 million jobs by 2030.

With agriculture, education, food and accommodation, trade, wholesale, and retail sectors among Africa’s highest employers of young women, the foundation advocated for the roll-out of apprenticeships and boot camps to accelerate women’s participation in those high-growth areas.

The ICT sector was also identified as a leading industry to catalyse substantial productivity, boasting a higher rate of remuneration for women compared to men in Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda.

The study spotlighted Namibia as a key model for other African nations to follow in prioritising the economic benefits of gender equality, having increased women’s economic participation from 40 per cent to 42 per cent in five years.

Egypt, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda have the potential to achieve the fastest growth should they replicate Namibia’s strategy, the study indicated.

Speaking on the launch of the report, the Director of Gender Programs at the Mastercard Foundation, Marieme Dassanou, said empowering young women in Africa was both an economic imperative and a transformative opportunity for the continent.

“We need to create environments where women can succeed as employees and entrepreneurs, ensuring Africa’s growth will be inclusive, sustainable, and driven by the full potential of its young women’s population,” Dassanou averred.

Source: Punch

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TECHDIGEST – Trace and the Mastercard Foundation launched Trace Academia, a free-to-use, interactive, mobile-based learning application that aims to enable 26 million young Africans to acquire on-demand, market-relevant skills. Trace Academia is available on Android and iOS and has already been successfully tested in 4 African countries. Users can access courses in one of two languages: English and French. Portuguese courses will soon be launched.

The learning content will include technical courses relevant to 15 different industries— including courses in energy, beauty, fashion, DIY, digital marketing, hospitality, the creative arts, journalism, film, and technology—as well courses that are more broadly relevant, such as entrepreneurship, public speaking, and personal wellness. Each course featured on the application has been designed in collaboration with an industry leading organization to ensure its relevance to employers and the job market.

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“Our courses and certificates are created in partnership with influential players across the industry, governments, and non-profit sector. This free, easy-to-use app aims to train 26 million African youth by 2026 with the skills they need to find or create work and the opportunities to kickstart their careers. I strongly believe that their current circumstances should never be a hindrance to their success,” said Olivier Laouchez, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Trace.

“Two things are particularly exciting about Trace Academia. One, is that the platform offers young people total flexibility and control over their learning. Users can learn at their own pace, in their own time, and customize their journey to the emergent demands they face as they navigate the world of work. Second, the courses are deeply practical and designed in collaboration with market-leading organizations to ensure they are industry relevant.

“The Mastercard Foundation is pleased to support this platform as part of our Young Africa Works strategy to enable 30 million young people to access dignified and fulfilling work by 2030,” said Peter Materu, Chief Program Officer at the Mastercard Foundation.

The new platform represents an important contribution to the youth employment agenda in Africa. As the youngest continent in the world, with nearly 65 percent of its population under the age of 25, Africa is home to the workforce of the future, and with the right skills and opportunities, young people will be the continent’s greatest drivers of transformation.

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TECH DIGEST – Experts have advised government at the state and federal levels in Nigeria to integrate technology in education to expand access to learning and ensure inclusion.

This was the summary of submissions made during the April edition of ‘The Edtech Mondays’, a monthly programme facilitated by MasterCard Foundation, in partnership with Co-creation Hub Limited (CcHUB), held in Lagos recently.

The April edition with the theme ‘Digi Learning – Can Education Technology Expand Access to Education?’ featured the duo of Olubayo Adekanmbi, Founder and Lead Mentor, Data Science Nigeria, and Rudranarayan Sahoo, the Education Manager for UNICEF in Nigeria as panelists with Joyce Daniels as the moderator.

In his remarks, Adekanmbi stated that technology remains a key driver in increasing access to education, considering the age we live in. He described technology as a great enabler to learning for all categories of children especially with the increasing access to mobile phones in Nigeria.

Emphasizing the significance of technology to education, he noted that the concept of learning is fast-changing as many digital devices have provided learning opportunities for children in a more interactive, customised and student-centered manner.

”Technology is as good as how we localize it or how we make it to be student-centered. Apart from that, learning should be localised to the reality of the child. Learning theory must lead while education must be the slave helping us to customize what is possible,” he added.

Citing examples of the partnership support between his non-profit organization, ‘We Learn at Home and MasterCard Foundation’ on some key initiatives, the data scientist noted that technology has contributed a lot to aid access to education not only for children in urban areas, but those in rural communities, as there are now numerous innovative means to deliver it.

He further noted that technology fused with learning is fast becoming a lifestyle that truly reflects the world.

Analyzing the theme, Sahoo noted that though the enrolment rate of school children in Nigeria is at an increasing pace, the reality on the ground revealed that the figure has not translated to improved learning outcomes as a great proportion of the children still lack basic literacy and numeracy skills.

Highlighting the current educational system, Sahoo said the time has come for a total reform of the sector if the country is serious about global competitiveness. According to him, 21st century schools must be prepared to offer young people creative skills, problem-solving skills and critical thinking skills.

Sahoo also explained that UNICEF is supporting the Federal Ministry of Education in digitalizing the curriculum and instructional materials. He added that UNICEF is partnering the Federal Ministry of Education in deploying the learning passport to reach out to about 25 million Nigerian children by the end of 2022, as well as capacity development of 30,000 teachers across the country, and the provision of ICT infrastructure needed in establishing ICT hubs.

He further revealed that according to statistics obtained, out of the 58,000 teachers in the North-eastern part of Nigeria, comprising Gombe, Adamawa, and Yobe, 28,000 teachers do not have the required teaching skills to teach primary school-age children. This means that the low quality of learning outcomes for children comes as a result of poor quality of teaching skills exhibited by the teachers.

“It is important for all concerned stakeholders, including government to rise to the occasion by embracing technology as a veritable tool to address the challenge. They cannot afford to continue to fold their arms while the decline in learning outcome persists,” he said.

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