60% of Africa’s young people want to emigrate, driven by unchecked corruption

A staggering 60% of African young people are looking to leave their respective countries in the next five years in search of a better life, with unchecked corruption being the “single greatest hurdle” threatening their future on the continent, according to a new poll by the Johannesburg-based Ichikowitz Family Foundation.
One-third of the nearly 420 million of African youth aged 15 to 35 are unemployed, the African Development Bank (ADB) has warned recently. While the more than 5,600 youngsters aged 18 to 24 polled in 16 African countries cited corruption as the biggest obstacle to progress, “most of all, they don’t believe their governments are doing enough to address this scourge and, because of it, almost 60% are looking to emigrate in the next five years,” says the 2024 African Youth Survey published on Tuesday (3 September). The survey is unparalleled in scope and size, says the Ichikowitz Family Foundation that commissioned the face-to-face interviews between January and February in countries ranging from South Africa to Ethiopia.
The survey also revealed that 55% of those polled think that Africa was headed in the “wrong direction”, although there was a modest rise to 37% in “Afro-optimism” from the survey two years ago. “They want tougher sanctions against corrupt politicians, including banning them from standing for office,” the foundation said. “They also want a different form of government,” the survey has shown, with nearly one in three respondents believing that “Africa-infused” non-democratic systems, from the military to one-party rule, could be preferable under certain circumstances. And if they finally were to emigrate, the survey reveals that North America would be the top pick for emigration for African youth, followed by Western European countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Spain.