Africa faces a severe youth employment crisis, with formal job creation drastically falling short of the number of young people entering the labor market annually. This imbalance fuels distrust in public institutions.

• 12 million young people enter the labor market each year, while only about 3 million formal jobs are created.
• Kehinde Ayeni, Executive Director of LEAP Africa, highlighted the growing gap between education and opportunities.
• In Kenya, 85% of the 848,200 jobs created in 2023 were in the informal sector, and graduates take an average of 5 years to find employment.