Africa’s growing youth population will not automatically translate into economic growth unless young people have greater opportunities to develop and apply their skills across the continent, Yasamin Alttahir, Director of Global Marketing, Communications and External Affairs at The King’s Trust International, has said.
Speaking at the Africa Business Convention 2026, Alttahir said the continent must look beyond the size of its youthful population and build systems that enable young people to participate meaningfully in economic activity.
“Demography alone is not growth. Having a whole bunch of young people is not going to immediately result in growth, and that is a challenge,” she said.
Alttahir argued that deeper African integration could unlock greater economic opportunities for young people by making it easier for talent to move across borders and contribute to different markets.
“I really feel that if Africa were to unify a little bit more, there would be a lot more growth and potential for young people,” she said.
She highlighted the difficulty young Africans often face in moving from one country to another to apply their skills, describing greater mobility of talent as an important part of unlocking the continent’s economic potential.
According to her, stronger regional integration would enable African economies to build on one another rather than compete for the same limited opportunities.
Alttahir also called for a shift away from what she described as a “culture of competition”, where investment and economic gains in one part of the continent may be viewed as a disadvantage to another.
Instead, she advocated an approach in which growth in one African market is seen as capable of generating new markets, partnerships and opportunities elsewhere on the continent.
Beyond mobility and integration, Alttahir stressed the importance of strengthening local organisations that work directly with young people.
She said such organisations need stronger capacity in areas including programme quality, accountability and impact assessment to ensure that successful initiatives can deliver sustainable results beyond the involvement of external organisations.
Her comments underscore a broader challenge facing Africa: translating its demographic advantage into productive economic participation.
For the continent’s youthful population to become a driver of growth, she suggested that Africa needs not only jobs and skills development but also stronger institutions, greater mobility and deeper economic integration that allow young people to put their capabilities to work across borders.
