Another challenge that policymakers are grappling with is how to generate more jobs for Africa’s burgeoning youth demographic in an increasingly competitive global environment. From sustainability focused startups to MSMEs and family-owned businesses, African entrepreneurs have taken on the myriad challenges facing the continent to build a more sustainable and economically prosperous future. Thus, Chapter 3 is dedicated to the entrepreneurs and small businesses that are responsible for most job creation on the continent, and the supportive policies needed to foster these ventures and to sustain the high-growth potential of African entrepreneurship.

The Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA-2024) is the first of the African Union's ten-year incremental phasing strategies to respond to the demand for science, technology and innovation to impact across critical sectors such as agriculture, energy, environment, health, infrastructure development, mining, security and water among others.

Guide for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in the ECOWAS RegionThis guide was created to help small business owners, traders and producers, especially women, in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) understand how the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) works. The guide complements the presentations prepared for the ECOWAS-led workshops in April 2021.

Africa boasts the world’s highest rates of entrepreneurship, with more than 1 in 5 working-age Africans starting a new business and more than three-quarters of the youth planning to start one within five years. We must begin to reconsider the models of entrepreneurship support that exist in Africa to ensure that young people are not being blinded by a false narrative of future wealth and stability. Academic institutions, governments, donors, and capital providers should be more intentional about promoting a more enabling environment for entrepreneurship to thrive with the intention of creating jobs on a massive scale in Africa.

The Potential of Africa to Capture Technology-Intensive Global Supply ChainsThe UN Economic Development in Africa Report, themed The Potential of Africa to Capture Technology-intensive Global Supply Chains, unpacks current global supply chain pressures and identify policies necessary for tapping into new opportunities, including creating a reliable African supplier marketplace for global supply chains.

This report focuses on the role of digital entrepreneurship in the sustainable development of Africa, identifying the most promising sectors for development and exploring the opportunities and challenges in each. The fi ndings and conclusions provide an important framework for further collaboration with other stakeholders in Africa. It was developed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development (ICPSD) in partnership with the HP Foundation and the African Union Commission.

Although Africa’s successful firms differ widely in their geographic and sector focus, what they have in common is the imagination to see the continent’s unmet needs as opportunities for entrepreneurship, and the long-term commitment required to build businesses of meaningful scale. Indeed, the fastestgrowing and most profitable businesses in Africa typically see challenges as a spur for innovation. For entrepreneurs ready to solve problems and innovate to meet Africa’s unmet needs there is tremendous opportunity for growth.

The report aims to provide a pathway for global businesses and investors to understand the biggest trends, opportunities and strategies to successfully invest and achieve high returns in Africa, developing local, subregional and continental value chains and accelerating industrialization, all of which go hand in hand with the success of the AfCFTA.