We must explore more avenues to create jobs

African nations can learn from China on how to alleviate the serious unemployment problem.

Africa's challenge in creating new job opportunities is daunting, but not unique. China as an emerging market economy has managed to make sweeping gains in economic growth and in transforming its employment landscape. Africa can learn from China's development model, as it has the right ingredients for development and just needs to put the right policies in place.

China has become a strategic partner in Africa's development. Specifically, it has been praised for its technology transfer, and making resources and affordable credit available for development. However, Beijing has been criticized for a failure to create employment on the continent.

Africa's growth has spurred rural-urban migration, especially among young people seeking work. Over the past decade, Africa's economic growth has been on an annual steady increase of 5.1 percent. The Africa Economic Outlook 2015 report anticipated the continent would experience economic growth of 4.5 percent last year, rising to a possible 5 percent in 2016.

To a great extent, this growth has been realized through China's industrialization policy in Africa.

This steady annual increase has improved living standards for an estimated 90 million Africans, which is projected to rise to 128 million by 2020. However, there are challenges that are expected to slow down this growth, such as rising levels of insecurity, terrorism and political instability.

Africa had a population of 1.1 billion as of 2013. Considering the projection of 128 million Africans living above the poverty line by 2020, this number is a small portion of the continent's population.

Currently, unemployment in Africa is estimated at 40 percent, with Kenya, Lesotho, Senegal, Mozambique and Djibouti exceeding that average level. This underscores the need for African states to create avenues for employment.

China has been successful in creating job opportunities for its citizens. This has been through good government incentives to curb the brain drain and to promote innovations among its citizens, as well as opening up trade opportunities for its people.

As Alan King and Carlyn Ramlogan-Dobson rightly argue in their 2015 report that industrialization is not the only factor that can aid African states in creating employment. Instead, they urge governments to explore other avenues for job creation, just as China has.

Such avenues include promoting large-scale commercial farming, reforming land rights and water management, building infrastructure and improving access to inputs such as seeds, finance and insurance to boost agriculture, and moving from producing low-value grain to higher-value crops such as horticultural crops and biofuels.

Certainly, this will not only help Africa achieve higher GDP, but provide avenues for employment, as a grain field can employ 20 people per 400 hectares and a horticulture plant about 230 people per hectare.

This is not to say that Sino-African cooperation in regard to industrialization has not provided opportunities for employment. A number of African countries including Nigeria, Tanzania and Ethiopia have hugely benefited from China's industrialization policies.

Yuemei Group, a Chinese company, has invested more than $51.2 million in Africa since 2006. In Nigeria, its investments have resulted in the creation of about 1,000 jobs.

Similarly, in Tanzania and Ethiopia, Chinese investments are estimated to have reached $541 million and $10 million respectively. This has resulted in between 80,000 and 150,000 new jobs since 2012 in Tanzania and 3,500 jobs in Ethiopia.

China-Africa cooperation has featured agreements on engaging with African people as well as investing in countries. Among the deals, one signed by Chinese multinationals looking to invest in Africa requires them to provide local employment opportunities.

However, this has been misconstrued as giving them responsibility for providing a job to every African who needs one. In turn, they run the risk of being branded "liars". This has created doubt and animosity between Africans and Chinese multinationals, as many fail to acknowledge the fact that unemployment is a government's responsibility.

Hence, in addition to Africans casting blame on China in regard to job creation, the countries have an uphill task of changing their development strategies to realize their agendas. This is because the labor force in Africa is expanding so quickly. So, there is scope for China's investment in Africa to have a greater impact on economic transformation and export diversification.

To realize capital and technological acquisition and transfer, Africa has to understand the balance between the quest to acquire development and new technology and the need to create jobs.

The author is coordinator of the China-Africa relations program at the Africa Policy Institute. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.