On World Youth Skills Day 2025, the global conversation circled a familiar question: how do we equip young people across the Africa with the tools for a future that is both uncertain and full of promise?
But for Africa, the question is more pressing – and more personal. With over 60% of its population under 25 and a rapidly growing digital ecosystem, Africa is not just preparing for the future; it is trying to build it from scratch.
Yet, for all its youthful energy and cultural capital, Africa still grapples with infrastructure gaps, skill shortages, and a development model that often prioritizes external approval over internal alignment. The creative economy offers a different route. One where African imagination is not just celebrated, but systematised – into skills, jobs, and industries.
And this is exactly where organisations such as Arts Connect Africa (ACA) and Ckrowd are leading from the front.
From Talent to Trade: Africa’s Creative Economy at a Tipping Point
Africa’s cultural and creative industries already generate over $4.2 billion annually and employ more than 8 million people, according to UNESCO. Projections suggest the sector could contribute over 5% to Africa’s GDP by 2030. But this won’t happen on potential alone. It requires intentional collaboration, strategic training, and ecosystem design.
It is vital for organisations such as the ACA and Ckrowd to implement how they are reimagining how Africa trains, scales, and empowers its young creatives, not just as artists, but as architects of economic and cultural policy.
Systems Before Stardom: Rethinking Creative Skills Development
It is high time for stakeholders, organisations and institutions, who despite work across over a number of African countries to reflect a simple but powerful belief: skills must be homegrown, not imported. The continent doesn’t need to borrow models, it needs to build them. ACA’s pre-event training initiative for MASA 2026 stands as a prime example. From dance and theatre to music and storytelling, young creatives are being equipped with skills in production, pitch delivery, and intellectual property management—not just to perform, but to thrive.
ACA doesn’t wait for institutions to act; it transforms festivals into classrooms, residencies into skill hubs, and informal creative gatherings into policy-influencing spaces. Its approach prioritizes peer-led training, mobility, entrepreneurship, and localised expertise, ensuring that skill development is context-specific and continent-first.
Platforms with Purpose: Where ACA Builds the Pipeline, Ckrowd Powers the Platform
As ACA nurtures talent from the ground up, private entities such as Ckrowd, a trailblazing music-tech company, provide the digital infrastructure that links African professionals to global opportunities. It is essential to create an outsourcing ecosystem that connects African music professionals with international projects, contracts, and employers, offering jobs across all tiers, from entry-level to executive.
The success of companies such as Ckrowd lies in the impact rooted in its understanding of both technology and tradition. It recognises that creative empowerment doesn’t stem from Western validation, but from African collaboration. Its partnership with ACA is a blueprint for the future: blending technical training with business literacy and cultural fluency, creating a holistic system for monetization and movement.
Together, they are collapsing the barriers that have long separated talent from opportunity – and redefining the rules of engagement for the global creative economy.
Youth in Power: Embedding Creativity into Governance and Policy
True transformation requires more than tools, it requires inclusion. In this digital age, African youth must not just consume culture; they must co-create policy. This means embedding creative thinking into national education systems, supporting cross-border internships, and funding cultural incubators across underserved regions.
It also means prioritizing access to technology. According to ITU, only 38% of Africans have reliable internet access. Without connectivity, the dream of a digital creative revolution remains out of reach for too many. We must democratize access to software, digital training, and revenue platforms that allow youth not just to survive – but to scale.
The Bigger Picture: From Skills to Sovereignty
World Youth Skills Day must be more than symbolic. It should be a call to action to see creativity as capital, and African youth as investors – not in charity, but in sovereignty, story, and scale. It’s not just about jobs. It’s about journeys. It’s not about catching up with the world.
It’s about charting a new world and paradigm.
The mission is clear: Africa’s future is cultural. It is youth-led. And it is unapologetically African.
Thus, it is essential for all policymakers, private sector leaders, donors, and diaspora stakeholders to join in and turning dreams into industries. Because when young creatives are given not just microphones, but systems and defined infrastructures, they don’t just change their lives. They change the continent.
Kayode Adebayo is CEO of Ckrowd and Board Director of Arts Connect Africa (ACA).
