African youth rising: The emergence and growth of youth-led digital enterprises in Africa

ABSTRACT

Africa has been viewed as a continent abundant with natural resources but deficient in human capacity to capitalize on this potential. Africa's youth have been the pariah of western prognosticators with reports of youth soldiers and the mass exodus across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. Demographics show that Africa has more people under age 18 than on any other continent. This youth population is projected to double by 2050, stressing economic and educational resources. Resultantly, numerous vulnerable and needy youth have become targets for extremist groups. The collision of youth growth and exploitation, coupled with scarce resources, has caused some researchers to label this a "ticking time bomb." This is the dominant narrative that researchers and the media have used to portray Africans. This chapter presents a counter-narrative. It points to a crop of highly creative African youth entrepreneurs who present the potential to transform and rewrite the continent's future. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022. All rights reseverd.