Strategies for Enhancing Digital Skills among Africa’s NEET Youth

Priyal Mukesh Gala, Kabira Namit and Huma Kidwai

No 203090, Education Working Papers from The World Bank

Abstract: This background paper examines the critical issue of how to enhance digital skills among youth who are not in employment, education, or training (NEET) in Africa to prevent approximately 72 million young people (two-thirds of whom are young women) from being marginalized in a global economy rapidly undergoing a digital transformation. First, it evaluates the current digital proficiency of the region’s NEET population and identifies substantial structural barriers that contribute to widening digital disparities. Subsequently, the paper explores the transformative potential of digital skills in boosting employability, fostering entrepreneurship, and enabling broader participation in socioeconomic life. Crucially, it then proposes scalable, cost-effective strategies, including public-private partnerships, mobile-first education initiatives, and community-based training programs. These approaches are assessed for their practicality (cost effectiveness and scalability) and for their potential to equip Africa’s NEET youth with the necessary digital competencies. If adopted at scale, these competencies can enable young people to join the economic mainstream and help translate Africa’s demographic potential into widespread social and economic gains.

Date: 2025-06-30
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/0996462 ... 2ef-0364caff309e.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found (https://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099646207092516899/pdf/IDU-73ec9567-ceb7-4efc-92ef-0364caff309e.pdf [302 Found]--> http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099646207092516899/pdf/IDU-73ec9567-ceb7-4efc-92ef-0364caff309e.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099646207092516899/pdf/IDU-73ec9567-ceb7-4efc-92ef-0364caff309e.pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:hdgewp:203090

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Education Working Papers from The World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20433. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Raiden C. Dillard ().