As unemployment among African youth deepens, the World Bank has made an unambiguous declaration that creating jobs is not one priority among many; it is the priority.
For many years, many believed development organizations and partners just spoke of job creation in general terms without any significant or actual priority. Many view jobs as a desirable outcome of economic growth. GDP forecasts and infrastructure timelines.
But at the 2026 Africa West and Central Youth Forum on Jobs held in Accra, Michelle Keane, Operations Manager of the World Bank Group in Ghana, challenged this assertion that jobs are at the centre of the operations of the Bretton Woods Institution.
It is estimated that more than 10 million young people enter the labour market each year, and formal employment systems routinely absorb only a fraction of that number. Those unable to find jobs just join the large unemployment pool, wasting their potential and posing a security threat.
The declaration by Michelle Keane signals the commitment of the World Bank Group to initiatives geared towards job creation, especially for African youth.
“For the World Bank Group, jobs are at the centre of our work and require action across both the public and the private sector.” Keane declared in her opening address, a remark that drew immediate attention from the hundreds of young entrepreneurs, students, policymakers and development professionals gathered in the room.
However, she was quick to add that the efforts of the World Bank require the support of both the public and the private sector.
On the public sector side, she said, the World Bank works alongside governments to strengthen the foundational conditions that make opportunity possible in the areas of human capital development, improved education and skills systems, digital connectivity, and a more enabling business environment.
She pointed to a recently approved $300 million project aimed at ending double-tracking in Ghana’s senior high schools. This move will not only expand access but also improve the quality of skills being developed for a generation of young people on the cusp of entering the workforce.
But job creation, she stressed, cannot be left to government alone. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private sector arm, works in parallel, partnering with businesses and financial institutions to unlock investment, support SMEs, and expand access to finance so that firms can grow and, in doing so, create jobs at scale.
It is a dual-track strategy that reflects a growing recognition within development circles: that sustainable employment is never the product of policy alone, nor of markets alone, but of both working in deliberate concert.
“Sustainable job creation happens when policy, investment and entrepreneurship come together,” Keane said, adding that “ many of the solutions we will be discussing today sit precisely at that intersection.”
The forum, themed Youth Works: Africa Thrives, brought together a diverse cross-section of voices, from young founders building fintech startups in Accra to regional vice presidents overseeing World Bank operations across the entire African continent.
For the Operations Manager at the World Bank Ghana Office, Michelle Keane acknowledged that lasting progress on youth employment requires exactly this kind of collaboration.
In a region where the mismatch between young people’s ambitions and available opportunities has reached crisis proportions, the clarity of the World Bank’s stated commitment offers hope and gives life to the aspiration of many African youth.
