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Africa’s immense wealth in mineral and natural resources has powered its economy for generations. But the world is moving rapidly to a more sustainable, less resource-intense future.

As we celebrate Africa Month the question is: can African economies adapt to ensure the continent can thrive and prosper well into the next century?

Africa produced more than half the world’s diamonds in 2020, with countries such as Botswana and SA continuing their leading role in the global diamond market. In the 1970s SA alone produced two-thirds of the world’s gold, a legacy that continues, though the country has been overtaken by China, Australia and, closer to home, Ghana.

The continent isn’t endowed only with abundant legacy resources such as diamonds and gold. Many of the minerals needed to power next-generation technologies are also abundant in Africa.

The Democratic Republic of Congo alone accounted for nearly two-thirds (63%) of the world’s cobalt in 2019. Its production of lithium — a crucial manufacturing component of smartphones, laptops and electric vehicles — is expected to grow from 40,000 tonnes in 2023 to nearly half a million tonnes by the end of the decade. However, Africa’s resources are finite. African countries will eventually have to move away from their reliance on resource extraction to power their economies.

Some experts already suggest the world has reached peak gold production and that the volume of gold produced per year will decline from now. This is bad news for a continent that heavily relies on the revenue generated by its natural resources. A UN report says Africa’s mining sector contributed nearly 7% of the continent’s GDP in 2017. Minerals represented 62% of exports in 2019.

But what if Africa was already endowed with a natural resource to beat all others, one that can end the continent’s reliance on digging for wealth and power its economy through innovation, ingenuity and productivity?

What if the continent’s abundance of youthful talent could be mobilised? Africa’s population will grow with astonishing speed throughout this century. While populations in more developed regions stagnate and decline, Africa’s youthful population thrives. From 2020 and 2050 1.2-billion people are expected to be added to Africa’s population. By 2100, UN data predicts that the continent’s population will reach 4.3-billion, more than three times more than now.

Bear in mind that the revenue gap is not due to technical limitations on realising the effect of the next wave of technological innovation — artificial intelligence, connected devices, intelligent enterprises — but rather a lack of skilled talent to implement and manage these technologies. It’s therefore not a stretch to say Africa’s greatest natural resource is its talented, youthful workforce. A study by Gallup found that digital skills generate $18.5-trillion in annual economic value, or 12% of global GDP. The same study found that advanced digital workers have higher rates of job satisfaction and feel more secure in their jobs than less digitally-able workers.

Mobilising the youthful workforce through rapid and extensive digital skills development holds the key to unlocking the continent’s vast economic potential. African countries should invest some of the revenue generated from their natural resources in building digital skills capacity. Infrastructure such as 5G internet and extensive mobile coverage is essential, especially in countries where legacy fixed-line infrastructure is lacking.

A government-led national digital skills strategy should be a priority for every education department all over the continent. Public-private partnerships that enable collaboration between governments and the corporate sector can help focus efforts, ensuring that any digital skills development initiatives meet real-world business needs and produce talent that can easily be absorbed into the formal economy.

Private sector organisations can partner with social enterprises and non-profit organisations that build or enhance digital skills. Â鶹ԭ´´â€™s partnership with the Siyafunda Community Technology Centres, for example, has benefited 30-million youth and adults through digital programmes at 240 centres.

Organisations should also champion their own digital skills development efforts to ensure they have access to work-ready digital skills. The Â鶹ԭ´´ Skills for Africa training programme delivered nearly 2,000 work-ready graduates in 22 African countries, with a 95% employment rate post-graduation.

Efforts at expanding access to digital learning opportunities should also continue. For example, Africa Code Week has provided basic coding training to 14.6-million African youth in 48 countries. And with a girl participation rate of 47%, the initiative has also made great strides in enabling digital learning opportunities for all who can benefit.

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Much has been written about the pandemic’s impact on business and its role as a once-in-a-generation catalyst for accelerated digital transformation. Across the continent – in enterprises large and small, and in every industry – business leaders have had to adapt with great urgency to survive the immediate disruption and ensure the long-term viability of their businesses.

Organisations that had already embarked on the journey toward becoming intelligent enterprises – those enterprises that seamlessly blend data, technology, systems and processes to enable real-time insights and decision-making across the business – would have had the benefit of a warship when the pandemic tsunami first struck.

Their greater resilience and adaptability not only cushioned them from the worst impact, but in many cases enabled quick pivots to new business models that secured their survival and accelerated their success.

The less prepared would have been floundering in their makeshift canoes, often tossed and turned with little means to steer their organisations through stormy seas.

There is no doubt that we are sailing in uncharted waters and towards an uncertain future.

Having the capability to quickly deploy new technologies – such as AI-assisted processes or scalable cloud applications – empowers organisations with agility and adaptability, both essential elements of success in our turbulent times. What’s more, it lends a sense of certainty to the decisions they make, as such decisions are grounded in accurate data.

New world of work = new challenges, opportunities

The hybrid work environment most organisations have had to adopt has created new challenges for managers and leaders to effectively motivate, guide and manage their teams. While challenging, this fundamental cultural shift toward more flexible work holds the promise of finally unlocking the possibilities of the digital workplace, which .

Organisations need real-time insight into employees’ current state of mind, their perception of their work, challenges keeping them from performing at their best and gaps in processes such as onboarding. This allows business leaders to make quick adjustments and maintain a positive and fulfilling employee experience at every step.

Using an experience management tool that produces measurable, data-driven insights can bring structure and consistency to how organisations respond to employee expectations. Technology is an invaluable tool here: that their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work.

New modes of leadership are also needed. I strongly believe the time is over for one-dimensional organisations that focus purely on chasing quarterly revenue targets.

Analysts estimate that purpose-driven organisations have and 40% higher levels of talent retention. What’s more, one study found that , compared to a 4.1% average for the S&P 500 over a ten-year period.

Employees also value purpose: 84% of millennials in one study said that .

Empowering the next generation of digital workers

The matter of skills development, while long a priority of governments and organisations across the continent, is of even greater importance today. As organisations drive greater digitisation in their business models, the urgency of having a steady supply of work-ready digital skills grows.

Organisations will need to collaborate with public and private sector partners to ensure Africa’s growing youth population is equipped with the key digital skills that can support their growth and success. Initiatives such as Africa Code Week that bring together hundreds of partners from government, NGOs and the private sector have already introduced millions of kids to coding while empowering local teachers with vital digital skills training.

Africa Month an opportunity to chart new course

Our recent shared experiences across the African continent should teach us that no one is immune to disruption.

The world already faces the consequences of climate change which could disrupt the global economy in ways that far outweigh the impact of the pandemic. Scientists believe the COVID-19 pandemic is almost certainly not the last one we’ll see, especially if we persist with unsustainable ways of living.

However, the same challenges also hold the promise of transforming the way we work and live to bring us toward more sustainable, innovation-driven and fulfilling ways of working.

The pandemic has been a tsunami that has swept across the globe. We are still feeling the ripple effects through every industry and in every country.

As we celebrate Africa Month, we must also take stock of how we are preparing for the next inevitable disruption.

Investment into building intelligent enterprise capabilities in our public and private sectors could hold the promise of a tsunami-proof lifeboat that can protect organisations and their employees, customers and partners from the worst effects of the next wave, while bringing us all closer to calmer shores.

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