How Africa could create more manufacturing jobs.

Even though the IT sector in many parts of Africa is growing, many economists still think that manufacturing holds the key to solving the rampant youth unemployment in th continent. The argument is that while IT no doubt creates tremendous economic value and wealth, the industry does a poor job in creating new jobs. This is just not in Africa, but globally. For instance, in the United States, hundreds of thousands of jobs have been shed as American companies outsourced manufacturing jobs to cheap sources of labor, mainly in Asia. The IT start-ups, while producing great wealth for shareholders, have not replenished the jobs lost as a result of outsourcing. Many economists agree that the loss of the manufacturing jobs is one reason why the middle class in the United States is ‘hollowing out’.

The important thing is that wages are rising in China and elsewhere in Asia, and this puts Africa at a good position to position itself as a hub for manufacturing firms looking to produce cheap goods. The