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Tanzanian elections: What issues are young people concerned about?
00:33:44
Tanzanians head to the polls on 29 October to elect their next president
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- [00:00]
Asma Khalid
This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the uk. America is changing and so is the world. But what's happening in America isn't just the cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere. I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. i'm Tristan Redman in London and this is the Global Story. Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection where the world and America meet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, I'm Yasha Michelle, and here's what's coming up for you on this edition of Focus on Africa. On Wednesday, Tanzanians head to the polls to elect the president and members of the National Assembly. What are the issues young people are most concerned about? The dark side of sports. Did rogue football agents lead to the death of a young Senegalese footballer in Ghana?
- [01:05]
Nathan Kwao
This young Senegalese footballer had been lured to Ghana by people who claimed they were agents because they were going to get him a football deal. And then the story went on to say that he was kidnapped and that his relatives were asked to pay a ransom. Despite all the efforts to put their ransom together, the young man turned up dead. So they. So that was the initial story that started to make the rounds.
- [01:25]
Asma Khalid
And as Africa becomes a key outsourcing destination, how are companies on the continent benefiting?
- [01:31]
Nathan Kwao
The financial growth I've experienced since entering the outsourcing sector has been significant. My earnings nearly doubled. I've personally received numerous messages on LinkedIn from aspiring young professionals seeking guidance on entering this space.
- [01:47]
Asma Khalid
It's Monday, 27th October 1st, we go to Tanzania. This Wednesday, Tanzanians will be casting their vote to elect a new president and members of the National Assembly. It will be the first time that the current president, Samia Salouhou Hassan, will be competing for the top job as deputy. She took over from President John Magufuli when he died in office in 2021. Many had hoped that she would be a more democratic leader than him. But activists and opposition leaders say Tanzania's government has become even more repressive. In a moment, we'll hear from two young people. But first, here are a few points you need to know about the upcoming elections.
- [02:34]
Alfas Lagat
Tanzania has the first past the post system.
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Nathan Kwao
The president and vice president are jointly elected by a simple majority popular vote. Each serves a five year term.
- [02:45]
Alfas Lagat
But since achieving independence in the 1960s.
- [02:48]
Nathan Kwao
The country has been essentially ruled by one political party. Seventeen candidates and their parties are officially running. But Samir Sulu Hassan of The Chama.
- [02:58]
Alfas Lagat
Chamapinduzi party is the only officially recognized.
- [03:02]
Nathan Kwao
Candidate and the two opposition parties, Chadema and Alliance for Change and Transparency, are not taking part. Major candidates from both parties have been banned from standing for election. Key concerns for voters are access to clean water, electricity, education and jobs. And although Tanzania has made progress in building roads, power lines and access to the Internet, some Tanzanians say despite five decades in power, the ruling CCM party has failed to deliver on its promises. People may not turn out to vote given that the government has stifled any form of dissent.
- [03:42]
Asma Khalid
That was the BBC's Alfas Lagat reporting. Many people are afraid to talk openly about the elections and forecasters expect the turnout of voters to be low. With 34% of Tanzania's population, young people between the ages of 18 to 35, their participation will be key. But will they vote and do they believe that the elections will be a free and fair process? 30 year old executive director of the African Leadership Initiatives for Impact, Joseph Brighton Malekela shares his thoughts.
- [04:14]
Alfas Lagat
I believe it's going to be a free election, people to go and to participate freely as they want to excise their constitutional right to elect. But also I believe after elections some things need to be improved based on the lessons learned in the entire process. One of the things which I think needs to be improved is having legal specific quota for young people to be in decision making processes like clause which will ensure young people being given position to be contestants, not only as voters but to be contestants but also as a young person. I think what I want, I want to see a peaceful process, a peaceful election conducted in the country and also a united country after election process. I know during election times a lot of things happens and we need to heal the wounds after election. So that is something which I really look forward to seeing. There is reconciliation, there is bringing back the country together, there are some reforms in election processes which may make it more inclusive, more participatory. But also what I exactly want as a young person is to see the leaders that are coming into power. They deal with challenges of young people in Tanzania. Challenges like issues of unemployment, issues of security, peace and security of the country, issues of mismatch of skills from the education to the demands in the street, access to finance and many critical demands of young people. So what I really look forward to see is how the leaders are coming to address these critical issues, challenges that the young people are facing.
- [06:01]
Asma Khalid
Another young person I spoke with is Lovelet Shemeh. She is a 29 year old policy and political analyst in Dar es Salaam. And she told me that she doesn't think that the concerns of the young people are being addressed in the elections.
- [06:15]
Lovelet Shemeh
Hearing the candidates speak and trying to explain the manifestos. It's the same old stories and tales that we've heard in previous elections where the premises are still very, very generic. Not any that is very particular to improving the lives of young people or policies that are dedicated to really addressing the challenges, especially of unemployment that youth have been facing.
- [06:44]
Asma Khalid
Now, Lovelette, you are 29 years old, so you definitely fall in that youth vote criteria. And there are quite a number of celebrities and key high figures that young people know who have been endorsing the ruling party. What's been your thoughts on that?
- [07:01]
Lovelet Shemeh
It's quite interesting to observe, but it's not also the first time. It's also happened in previous elections. And this is to hold ourselves accountable as young people, especially in our youth wings. Because all the political parties structurally have youth wings. With ccm, they have Umodia, ccm, that's uv, ccm, but also Chedema, they have Bavica Barezala Vidyana, act was a Lando, has Ngomea, Vigana. All these are youth wings that we're supposed to hold youth agendas nationally and ensure that they push forward changes in the decision making process and eventually in policy. So the more participation of youth celebrities in these elections, we expected they would have these conversations. They'd bring these conversations into election campaigns and try to push for the challenges and issues that youth face in Tanzania. But unfortunately, it's all been about entertainment and it is quite interesting. But also, we as young people also have to hold ourselves into account whenever we get these opportunities to speak to authority. Do we actually speak the relevant issues that youth face? But also it is important to acknowledge young people that live in upcountry and rural areas who are misrepresented or underrepresented, if you could say, because all these celebrities and youth elites from urban areas and from the elite class, really. So we also don't have a lot of inclusion of young people to inform the realistic representation of young people in Tanzania.
- [08:38]
Asma Khalid
So why do you think that these celebrities choose to endorse a party that one would say is not making lives better for most of the youth in the country?
- [08:50]
Lovelet Shemeh
Oh, well, it's important to acknowledge that entertainment is also a part of employment. I can imagine that they get a bit when they entertain in political rallies. You know, there's so many actors who. It's a long chain of holding different actors accountable in their ethical conduct whenever they involved in campaigns and in different national issues. And what they actually uphold that is more personal accountability and how they're being held accountable from their own bodies. So I assume in the entertainment industry they have their own authorities that hold them accountable. So it is debatable.
- [09:32]
Mona Nina Idrisu
Yeah.
- [09:33]
Asma Khalid
Do you think that these celebrities who endorse the ruling party are detached from reality?
- [09:37]
Lovelet Shemeh
You could say yes, that they are detached because of the high life that they live. Most of them live in urban areas, but most of them are also in the entertainment industry. So probably they do not have an exclusive of what goes on in the agricultural sector, mining sector. These are sectors that have a lot of young people who are involved in the process. It's quite important to also broaden how we look at the role that academicians, researchers, business people, farmers have taken part in elections and not just narrowing it down to just celebrities. I do agree with you that they attract an interesting voter retention, especially on how they publicly and openly endorse some political parties and candidates. But it's also important to see how different actors and different players and different voters in the lecturer system and how they've endorsed and why are the reasons they've actually endorsed the parties and the candidates that they're standing up onto.
- [10:38]
Asma Khalid
Lovelet, you've mentioned, of course, the president of CCM, the party has been in power since 1961, making it the longest serving ruling party. What do you think is going to be their legacy?
- [10:50]
Lovelet Shemeh
Something that we must acknowledge and appreciate about Chamo Chama Tenduzi is the fact that they've been able to use the machineries and government tools to maintain the atmosphere of unity and peace in Tanzania. That must be upheld it and we must give them their flowers. Because as we've witnessed, different African countries, also globally different countries have gone into phases of disunity and chaos. But Tanzania has remained to be a country that is widely known for its peace and unity of its people, the harmony that is present for coming business people to invest. So these are things that Chama Chana Kenduzi has left as a legacy. Even if it's another political party that is coming in, they would really have to match up to that. But also the union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar as whole so survived the test of time. It's important to acknowledge different strategies that government has put in place to ensure that the unity has remained strong. But also now witnessing a whole lot of revolution in the blue economy that Zanzibar and Tanganyika, you know, like Tanzania collectively upholding for and, you know, branding themselves globally that this is what we uphold for the country.
- [12:07]
Asma Khalid
I was speaking there to Lovelet Shame, a 29 year old policy and political analyst in Darussalam. And earlier you heard from Joseph Brighton Malakela. It began as a dream, a chance for a young Senegalese footballer to play professionally in Ghana. But sadly it ended in tragedy. 20 year old Sheikh Torre lost his life earlier this month in the city of Kumasi. Senegal's government says he was tricked and murdered by a criminal network posing as football agents. Ghanaian police say he was brought to hospital after an accident where he died. Sebastian Sommerfield is a former footballer from Zimbabwe who runs a FIFA licensed football academy called Zafia Sports Group. And he says rogue football agents is something he has seen all too often.
- [12:58]
Sebastian Sommerfield
The first thing we really have to just say is how terrible what happened to Jake Toure was a young boy following his dreams, thinking that this was his family's get out. To be lured from Senegal to Ghana and then to essentially get human trafficked through the sport we love is totally not okay. And I believe there's so much of this happening on the continent. I've seen so many horror stories. And that's the reason why I've decided to partner with a football agency that has a proper football agent who's registered with the fa, who's registered with FIFA. The agency is called Zephyr Sports Group, ZSG for short. I'm in charge of the safeguarding of the players, making sure that they leave Zimbabwe or Africa, wherever it is, in a healthy condition and are placed in clubs with a healthy environment in a healthy condition. You know, when I think about why it happens more on the mother continent than it does here in Europe is because these are people who are looking for any sort of opportunity to make it out to bring in bread for their family. And it's hard because they feel like if they don't seize this opportunity, they've lost it. I've actually had an instance where I introduced a player to an agent and said agent didn't renew his license. So for a couple of months he was not eligible to actually look after the player. And he didn't give that information to me until we found out. Then I immediately took the play away from that agent.
- [14:16]
Asma Khalid
Former Zimbabwean footballer Sebastian Sommerfield. Following Sheikh's death, Senegal's Ministry of African Integration, Foreign affairs and Senegalese Abroad put.
- [14:26]
Nathan Kwao
Out the following initial investigations conducted by.
- [14:30]
Asma Khalid
The consular services indicate that Mr. Torre.
- [14:33]
Nathan Kwao
A young Senegalese footballer, may have been the victim of a fraud and extortion network. In this context, two embassy staff members will be dispatched to Kumasi starting Sunday, October 19, 2025, to assist the local authorities with administrative and legal procedures and to prepare, in conjunction with the family, the repatriation of remains to Senegal as soon as necessary authorisations have been obtained. The Ministry wishes to express its deepest sympathy to the bereaved family and reassures.
- [15:04]
Asma Khalid
That this case is being closely monitored. So what really happened to Shayk? Nathan Kwao is a sports journalist in Ghana. He broke down to me the circumstances around his death.
- [15:15]
Nathan Kwao
There was an initial story that started to make the rounds that this young Senegalese footballer had been lured to Ghana by people who claimed they were agents because they were going to get him a football deal. And then the story went on to say that he was kidnapped and that his parents or his relatives were asked to pay a ransom. Now, despite all the efforts to put their ransom together, the young man turned up dead. So that was the initial story that started to make the rounds. And then the Ashanti Regional Police Command, because the said incident happened in the Ashanti region, so that region's police command put out an official statement detailing certain things that they had found after doing their initial investigations. Now, these were the things they said. One, the late gentleman was brought to the Mensha hospital. He had knife marks, some things that looked like stab wounds on his abdomen and on his neck. Now, according to the police, he was brought in by three French speaking gentlemen. Their nationalities are not too clear, but they were brought in by these three French speaking gentlemen. Now, according to the police statement, these gentlemen told the hospital authorities through an interpreter that the said gentleman had suffered an accident and they had found him and so they brought him. After they initially gave that statement, they then went on to say a different thing, that, oh, the said gentleman tried committing suicide and then they found him. So they've brought him to the hospital as Good Samaritans for him to be treated. The police went on to indicate that these gentlemen did not leave any contact or means by which they could be contacted. So as of today, these three gentlemen are persons of interest and the police are looking for them to aid with the investigation. So that is where we are currently with this story.
- [16:55]
Asma Khalid
You've told me a version of the story. Is that the same version that is being narrated in Senegal?
- [17:02]
Nathan Kwao
Well, the initial story that arose, as I said, was that the gentleman had come to Ghana and then he had fallen victim to a kidnapping that went wrong. So initially that was what was being said in Senegal. But after the police issued the statements, we also found out from the police themselves that they had been dealing with the Senegalese authorities and the Ghanaian foreign ministries because the person in the middle of this is a Senegalese national. So I cannot say whether they are up to date concerning the official statement from the police. It's a little difficult for me to determine what exactly is being said in Senegal, but what I can say is that at the level of the Senegalese Foreign Ministry and by extension the Senegalese government, they have been briefed by the Ghana police through the Ghana Foreign Affairs Ministry as to what they have discovered per their initial investigation.
- [17:47]
Asma Khalid
Now, let's talk about the so called football agents or recruiters who are at the center of this story. How do they manage to convince young players to trust them?
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Nathan Kwao
For most young players, it's the dream of playing in Europe or getting a better deal somewhere. And sometimes because a lot of these young footballers are not too aware of what's happening, maybe they are in a haste, maybe they don't even take their time to read whatever paperwork is put in front of them. Sometimes you have these agents who may be able to prove that, oh, I've sent player A or B to this country. And so once they present, that is able to hook the young footballers in and then they can move them from one country to the other, of course, based on the promise that they are going to get them a big deal or a big contract that could do big things for them.
- [18:29]
Asma Khalid
And how common are these types of scams? And have Ghanaian authorities or football associations done much to stop them?
- [18:36]
Nathan Kwao
I will say they do happen. I mean, I won't say it's widespread, but it does happen. I remember there was a study, it was about maybe 10 years ago, that this was happening quite often. Back in the day, Ghanaian footballers were being trafficked and by extension some footballers from West Africa will be taken to Europe and then they'll be stranded. And it was causing all kinds of problems. Ghanaian authorities in terms of like the wider government has not done a lot, but what has happened in the last few years is that because things like the FIFA tms, the transfer management system and other things have been brought by FIFA. So for example, like the Ghana Football association is a bit more particular about some of these things. You have to check player agents, that space is a bit more regulated, so it won't happen as often as you would imagine. But a few will slip through the net. Some unscrupulous people will pose as agents, but largely some of These things like the FIFA TMS is in existence and it's tried very hard to check some of these things and ensure that the right people who claim they are agents are actually agents. These days, FIFA checks all of those things.
- [19:35]
Asma Khalid
Yeah, they are still happening. I've actually had quite a number of conversations. The few of my friends who are in the football industry who've told me they are, some who still fall through the cracks. And unfortunately, some of these young people who are promising football players, they are stuck in foreign countries with no money, no passport and no way of going back home. So what kind of background checks or protections exist for players who get offers from clubs abroad?
- [20:03]
Nathan Kwao
When you talk about background checks, first and foremost, it's very important for young players never to make some of these decisions by themselves. So if you are a young footballer and an agent or somebody who claims to be an agent approaches you and says, I want to take you here, you would have to run it by somebody, either a trusted relative, somebody who's in the football space, a football official, so that that person can do the due diligence. The fact that these a stricter regulation concerning intermediaries, they need to be licensed. So it is very incumbent on young footballers to ensure that whoever is handling them, be it managers or representatives, they check the backgrounds of these gentlemen who claim to be agents and all of that. I know several young footballers who were with one representative and they were offered a juicier offer by another person, and then they quickly switched camps only to find that they had been duped or they didn't get what they were promised. So it's very incumbent for young footballers not to take decisions alone. They need to always consult people who are in general.
- [21:01]
Asma Khalid
Nathan, as I mentioned, I've had some conversations with people who either are keen footballers or they're in the industry themselves. And this still happens at a larger scale than we actually are aware of. You've mentioned the fact that they have to do their due diligence. But to those who are listening, who either are football hopefuls themselves or are parents or relatives of those who really want to make it big in football, what is that? Due diligence? How does one, for example, actually know that the person who is promising them this great opportunity is a verified and safe agent that is not going to ultimately end them up in danger?
- [21:40]
Nathan Kwao
The solution I can think of, I would say that it's almost foolproof, is whenever somebody approaches you, a young footballer, that I'm taking you to country A or B or I'm offering you this always speak with somebody. So, for example, if you're a young footballer, you can speak to an official of your country's football federation or you know, somebody who works at your level, the district level or the regional level. Let that person do their due diligence. That person will know other people in the football space who may know other people who may have an idea of this said agent, what they've done so far, what their track record is, what they can offer you and cannot offer you.
- [22:17]
Asma Khalid
Is there a particular certification that a fever football agents should have?
- [22:23]
Nathan Kwao
Yes. These days, agents and representatives do take an exam, and it is that exam that certifies you. You pass that exam, you are officially recognized as a FIFA licensed agent and you can do your football business. So if anybody approaches a young footballer or anybody approaches the relative of a young footballer, try to get that person's certification. Ask them, are you FIFA certified? Can you prove it? If you do speak to your national football authority, there is always a way for them to find out. I've mentioned the FIFA transfer management system. It's a great tool that FIFA has in place to ensure that there's clarity in the transfer of players.
- [22:59]
Asma Khalid
Yeah, I think that is a very, very important thing for us to make very clear to our listeners because the issue is quite rampant across the continent and some people might not necessarily know what those necessary checks are or who to actually contact to ensure that they are able to do their due diligence.
- [23:17]
Nathan Kwao
People can even use their local journalists, sports journalists of repute, people who know their stuff. They will always have a contact or know somebody who knows somebody who can do the verification for you. If they feel that the football authority is a little far from them, they can reach out to a media person. Somebody who knows their onions will be able to help you do those verifications and to do those double checks.
- [23:39]
Asma Khalid
That was Nathan Quall, sports journalist based in Ghana. This is Focus on Africa from the BBC World Service. America is changing and so is the world. But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere. I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. i'm Tristan Redman in London, and this is the global story. Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection where the world and America meet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Have you ever called your service provider and found yourself speaking to someone based in India, the Philippines, or even South Africa, countries that you are not based in well, that's a common practice in business that is called business process outsourcing or bpo. It is when a business hires a third party company to handle specific business functions or processes such as customer service, accounting or IT support. These services would otherwise be handled internally, but instead are farmed out to external providers. The practice has become an integral strategy for businesses in wealthy and more industrialized countries seeking to optimize their operations in the global market for a fraction of the cost cost Esetu Dwili is a 31 year old accountant who is based in Johannesburg. Three years ago he began working in South Africa's fast growing outsourced financial services sector and the opportunity, he says, gave him the chance to change his family's life.
- [25:20]
Nathan Kwao
This move opened doors to working with a diverse portfolio of large international clients across various industries. It also provided the opportunity to collaborate with audit firms based in the United States, Ireland and the United Kingdom and included prospects for international travel. Through these engagements I've built strong professional relationships, one of which led to my recent full time appointment at Copa Perry. The financial growth I've experienced since entering the outsourcing sector has been significant. My earnings nearly doubled. This increase has enabled me to support my family as I am the sole breadwinner. The outsourcing sector is playing a vital role in empowering young South African professionals, offering them global exposure and renewed hope for career advancement. I've personally received numerous messages on LinkedIn from aspiring young professionals seeking guidance on entering this space.
- [26:18]
Asma Khalid
Esetu Dwili, a young accountant in South Africa so what are the benefits and opportunities that this expanding sector can bring and what are the risks? Mona Nina Idrisu is the Head of Youth Employment and Skills at the African center for Economic Transformation in Accra, Ghana. Mona has been sharing with me her insights on how outsourcing is shaping Africa's economic and employment landscape.
- [26:48]
Mona Nina Idrisu
In this context, it's usually Global north companies outsourcing essential business processes to Global south.
- [26:58]
Asma Khalid
And a lot of times we tend to think of call centers when you say outsourcing, but what other industries or services could be involved in outsourcing?
- [27:06]
Mona Nina Idrisu
So the call centers are definitely the most popular types, but increasingly we're seeing this in the creative and digital marketing space as well. And we're also seeing this happening around, say, data labeling and outsourcing. A lot of data work that goes behind running social media platforms and also AI platforms.
- [27:28]
Asma Khalid
So what is driving this outsourcing boom, particularly across parts of Africa, especially in countries like South Africa?
- [27:37]
Mona Nina Idrisu
So as I'M sure you're aware, and many listeners might be aware also that Africa, we have a demographic dividend. We have a huge, huge youth bulge. Increasingly, this youth bulge is educated or has specific skill set. So Africa presents a perfect mix of affordability because the wages you would pay relatively are cheaper than if you were going to do this in house, say in Europe or in the us. Which means that outsourcing will give you that mix of affordability, but also talent because we see a lot of young, talented Africans that are coming up. And so this mix presents that advantage for companies.
- [28:23]
Asma Khalid
How big is this industry becoming in economic terms and what kind of contribution is it making to African economies? You've mentioned job creations, of course, but if you could expand on that, that would be great.
- [28:35]
Mona Nina Idrisu
South Africa is definitely the biggest player here. About 42,2% of BPO in Africa is happening in South Africa, but we're seeing also other players like Nigeria. And as you're aware, Nigeria has a huge young population. And then we have Kenya and Ghana that are coming up in the area. And from recent data, BPO processing is going to be giving about 1.5 million jobs by 2030. So even though Africa, if you look at global share, it's still about just 3%, but we are going to see increasingly Africa taking a huge share of the BPO market for the reasons I mentioned earlier on.
- [29:21]
Asma Khalid
Yeah, that sounds quite exciting, especially as a young African, even though I'm not based on the continent. It sounds really promising, but promising has a lot of different aspects to it. Right? It's the fact that yes, one has a job, but also does that job pay them well. So are the jobs and the wages.
- [29:40]
Mona Nina Idrisu
Improving people's livelihoods generally, because a lot of these global north companies are already benefiting from the reduced wage relative to if they were to employ domestically. It means that they're able to pay in most cases above what the average African firm could pay for the same type of work. They are paying other benefits that might come with it, the work environment, feeling safe and secure and all of that. Now, because of the nature of the jobs in bpo, they tend to be the gig economy style, right? So it's short term. So this is where the challenge usually comes because there's a lot less job security because these are contractual type of work, they're precarious in nature and as such, you don't have as much confidence as a young person that you're going to have a job forever, if I can put it that way.
- [30:35]
Asma Khalid
Is it though just a one Way process because we've spoken a lot about companies outsourcing to Africa, but are there companies in Africa that outsource their services outside of the continent?
- [30:46]
Mona Nina Idrisu
Now we're starting to see some African firms also outsourcing to places like the Philippines, Indonesia, India being a popular one, and in the manufacturing area, China as well. Well, a huge part of that is because of infrastructure. You know, whilst we have that youth population that are skilled, we struggle with infrastructure, Internet, connectivity, data. And so it becomes easier to outsource beyond the continent to countries that have that infrastructure in combination with the young talent.
- [31:22]
Asma Khalid
And you mentioned there the infrastructure is very important and key that governments of these African nations actually build them in order for African companies to be able to employ their own African citizens within their country. What are some, some of those industries then that you see a lot more outsourcing happening?
- [31:43]
Mona Nina Idrisu
I mentioned earlier on around digital and the creative economy, I mean unless you're not on social media, you see the creativity we're seeing on the continent. The fintech developers in Lagos, Nigeria, we're seeing, you see movie, music, the fashion industry is one also where we're doing amazing things over there. And we did a study around the barriers of entry for young women was a gender based study in Ghana and Senegal. BPO was one of those areas that young women felt the safest because they could do it from their homes. You get jobs that are based elsewhere, it means that you're working from the safety of your home. In the Sahel, for example, northern Nigeria, a lot of young women are benefiting from working in that sector. So just to highlight advantages that it also has for young women, are the.
- [32:36]
Asma Khalid
Local governments supporting training for these roles or is it solely the responsibility of the companies?
- [32:42]
Mona Nina Idrisu
So we're seeing a mixture but interestingly the biggest players are actually private sector. So third party companies partners or private sector led companies that are setting up in Africa, they're African owned and they're taking on these partnerships. Summer in Kenya was providing data moderation services for Meta. We also see Microsoft. So that's what's happening. And these intermediaries companies are then responsible for providing these skills and training young people to be able to take up some of these jobs. Now in terms of the policy environment and frameworks, we are increasingly seeing some governments catching up. So they're increasingly providing that enabling environment to attract or to enable these third party companies set up and provide that training and framework for young people.
- [33:37]
Asma Khalid
In the long run, could outsourcing become a real engine for economic transformation in Africa or is it just a temporary boost?
- [33:44]
Mona Nina Idrisu
Well, it can be long term if it is combined with other investments in other productive sectors. So it can play a role. It doesn't have be to to be the only role. It plays a role because we have seen it happen in India, for example, where that has lifted a number of people from poverty and has empowered them with skills for life. The danger is that if we then just solely rely on that and neglect building our industries and neglect investing in other productive sectors, so it needs to go hand in hand.
- [34:22]
Asma Khalid
Mona Nina Edrisu, head of youth employment and skills at the African Centre for Economic Transformation Today's edition of Focus on Africa was put together by Mark Wilberforce, Sunita Naha, Stefania Okereke and Yvette Twagra. Maria Patricia Whitehorn was the senior producer and Craig Kingham the technical producer. Our editors are Sam Murunga and Mariam Abdallah. I'm Nasha Michel. Thanks for listening. America is changing and so is the world. But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere. I'm A Smah Khalid in Washington, D.C. i'm Tristan Redmond in London, and this is the Global story. Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection where the world and America meet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.