…but faces urgent jobs challenge
Moroke Sekoboto
SUB-Saharan Africa’s economy continues to show resilience, with growth projected to reach 3.8 percent in 2025, up from 3.5 percent in 2024, according to the World Bank’s latest Africa’s Pulse report released this week.
The World Bank attributes the slight acceleration to easing inflationary pressures and a modest recovery in investment, despite persistent global economic uncertainties.
The number of countries in the region experiencing double-digit inflation has dropped significantly—from 23 in October 2022 to 10 in July 2025—a sign of progress in stabilising prices.
However, the report warns that downside risks remain substantial. These include the indirect effects of global trade policy uncertainty, declining investor appetite, and a shrinking pool of external finance, including reduced official development assistance.
External debt service has more than doubled over the past decade, reaching 2 percent of GDP in 2024. The number of Sub-Saharan African countries either in or at high risk of debt distress has nearly tripled, rising from eight in 2014 to 23 in 2025—nearly half of the region.
While growth has held steady, the pace remains too slow to significantly cut extreme poverty or create the volume and quality of jobs needed for the region’s rapidly expanding labour force.
The continent is undergoing the world’s largest and fastest demographic shift, presenting both an opportunity and a challenge. The World Bank says countries must focus on accelerating growth that generates high-quality jobs, the central theme of the 32nd edition of Africa’s Pulse, titled Pathways to Job Creation in Africa.
“Over the next quarter century, Sub-Saharan Africa’s working-age population will grow by more than 600 million,” said Andrew Dabalen, World Bank Chief Economist for the Africa Region.
“The challenge will be matching this growing population with better jobs, given that only 24 percent of new workers today land wage-paying jobs. A structural shift toward more medium and large firms is essential to generate wage jobs at scale.”
The report outlines a range of policy priorities to stimulate large-scale job creation. Chief among them is reducing the cost of doing business, enabling existing firms to expand and new high-growth enterprises to emerge.
It also calls for investments in infrastructure—including energy, digital connectivity, and transport—as well as human capital and skills development to build a strong ecosystem for people and businesses to thrive.
Furthermore, strengthening institutions and governance is seen as vital to ensuring stability, curbing corruption, and creating a predictable business environment that can attract private investment.
The World Bank identifies key sectors with potential to drive job creation, including agribusiness, mining, tourism, healthcare, housing, and construction. For instance, every job created in the tourism industry is estimated to generate an additional 1.5 jobs in related sectors.
With the right policy reforms and strategic investments, the report concludes, Sub-Saharan Africa can unlock its vast employment potential and chart a path toward inclusive and sustainable growth.
