Photo courtesy of ESI-Africa.com

A report entitled Forecasting Green Jobs in Africa produced by the advocacy group Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) in conjunction with the recruitment firm Shortlist, suggests that Kenya could create up to 240,000 ‘direct green jobs’ by 2030 out of a projected total of 3.23 green jobs across Africa.

If the forecast is bourn out Kenya will create the second highest number of green jobs in the continent by 2030, equal to those created in Nigeria and only marginally behind South Africa.

The study was based on forecasts from five countries – the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, which the study predicts will see more than a fifth of the jobs expected from the green transition over the next six years.

Preservation and restoration of the environment

The new jobs will be linked to the ‘preservation and restoration of the environment’.

In Kenya, the report predicts, the largest number of jobs will derive from solar-related projects resulting in employment for 110,000 people, 40 percent of all jobs created during the period to 2030.

Other significant areas of employment generation the report highlights will come from geothermal projects, creating 22,000 new jobs; 18,000 from power transmission and distribution; 16,000 from waste remediation and recycling; 16,000 from battery storage, 14,200 from electric two wheelers; 12,000 from wind; 11,000 from hydro projects; 7,000 from aquaculture and poultry; and 5,900 from charging infrastructure.

New skills

The Forecasting Green Jobs in Africa report, however, notes that such job creation will require what it calls ‘focused skilling efforts to ensure an ample talent’: in short, enough Kenyans with the necessary skill sets and training to take up the new jobs.

‘Achieving or exceeding these targets’, the report states, ‘requires persistent and intentional action from stakeholders (i.e., learning and training institutions, funders and investors, large employers and industry associations, and policy makers and researchers) on skilling and enablement.’

It order to achieve these targets, the report calls for investment in formal education and training programmes to develop the technical skills necessary to take up green jobs.

About 10% of the jobs created will demand university degrees, 30% will be “specialised” work that requires certification or vocational training, and 20% administrative. In addition, unskilled labour employment opportunities will be crated, with opportunities for upward mobility.

You can read the full Forecasting Green Jobs in Africa report here.

See also, The Guardian, ‘Green economy could generate 3.3 million jobs across Africa (26 July, 2024).