By 
By Moses Anibaba, Regional Director, British Council, Sub-Saharan Africa
Africa has the youngest population in the world, representing an enormous opportunity for the continent’s growth and the opportunity to become leaders as global citizens – provided these energetic, creative young people can achieve their true potential.
In a region where millions of people remain excluded from basic amenities such as education, social and creative entrepreneurs are leading the way for positive transformation. Social and creative enterprises offer a route to self-sufficiency by providing training and education, and harnessing skills – all elements that improve access to jobs.
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Research by the British Council indicates that, not only have social and creative enterprises created a significant number of jobs across the region, but they also create them for people from underserved communities.
The creative economy is one of the most rapidly growing sectors in the global economy, offering new and high growth opportunities, especially for developing countries. As developing nations generate and sell a wide variety of creative products (including films, art, music, fashion, cultural crafts, and computer games and apps), they contribute to the home nation’s gross domestic products, exports, and growth, ultimately boosting development outcomes. Throughout Africa, revenue from digital music streaming is expected to reach $500 million by 2025, up from only $100 million in 2017, according to the World Bank.
The growth of creative and social enterprises is a means of addressing some of Africa’s most entrenched and complex challenges, specifically those arising from youth unemployment and unequal economic growth. By helping to build sustainable businesses in the creative and cultural industries worldwide, and sharing our knowledge and experience through skills workshops, mentoring and peer networks, the British Council aims to help grow this important sector of economies in Africa.
Social and creative enterprises are more than just businesses; they help to sustain livelihoods and build strong and inclusive communities, supporting groups who are often left on the side-lines by traditional business models. Forty-one per cent of social enterprises have a woman in charge – significantly more than in other businesses.
More social enterprises aim to create jobs (78%) than profit-first businesses (27%). Seventy-three per cent deliberately employ people from poor communities, compared to 56% of profit-first businesses. We estimate the number of jobs created in Africa by social enterprises to be between 28 million and 41 million.
