Prez Mahama urges Investors to support Start-ups and Creative sector.
President John Dramani Mahama has called on global investors, particularly from Japan, to scale up investments in Africa’s youth-led industries, start-ups, and creative sectors, describing them as essential for the continent’s long-term economic diversification and stability.
He made the appeal during a panel session at the 9th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 9), where he stressed that Africa’s economic future rests on its youthful population, with 60 per cent of citizens between the ages of 16 and 35.
“The world is changing and it’s now a knowledge economy,” President Mahama said, noting that young Africans are increasingly turning towards fintech, renewable energy, agritech, and creative industries rather than traditional forms of employment.
According to him, Africa’s start-ups raised $4.2 billion in 2024, with fintech companies accounting for 45 per cent of the total. He pointed to Ghanaian agri-fintech firms as examples of innovation that are tackling structural inefficiencies in agriculture by digitising input distribution, providing mobile-based credit to farmers, and building credit scoring systems. These interventions, he explained, were improving productivity and opening new channels for private capital in Africa’s largest sector.
President Mahama further highlighted the opportunities within the creative economy and digital industries, which, he observed, were creating jobs at a faster rate than agriculture or manufacturing. “In the creatives, renewable energy and digital space, you can create four jobs before you create one in agriculture or manufacturing,” he told participants.
For global businesses, he presented Africa’s youth bulge as both a major opportunity and a potential risk. The continent, he cautioned, would need to create between 12 and 15 million jobs annually to absorb new entrants into the labour market. Failure to direct investments towards high job-multiplier sectors, he warned, could destabilise economies.
Japan, which already has a strong partnership with Africa in infrastructure and trade, was urged to pivot more strategically towards the continent’s innovation economy. With expertise in technology, renewable energy, and the creative industries, President Mahama said Japanese firms were well-placed to collaborate with African start-ups, co-finance innovation hubs, and tap into a consumer market projected to reach $2.5 trillion by 2035.
He cautioned, however, that Africa’s demographic dividend would only materialise if investments matched the scale of demand. “If we do not create enough jobs fast enough, the youth bulge will cease to be an advantage and could become a destabilising force,” he added.
