The British Council’s research into the opinions and beliefs of young people have seen a marked shift from optimism to pessimism since the Covid-19 outbreak. Our previous Next Generation surveys of young people in Kenya, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe found sizeable majorities of young people believed their lives would be better than their parents and were optimistic for positive change in their country in the next five years.

The pace of Africa's economic growth is insufficient to produce the one million new jobs a month to match the labour demands of young people. But what if, in the focus to find jobs for young people, we are fighting the wrong battle. Why don’t we place more focus on allowing Generation Z, our future leaders, to create their own businesses as part of a quest for creating African identities and cultures?

Title: [• Ms]
Name: [• Ojoma Ochai ]
Position at organisation: [• British Arts Council director for Arts in Sub-Saharan Africa ]