What the GBS sector offers Africa's youth
29 April 2026
Global business services (GBS) and digital sectors are reshaping youth employment across Africa, and the potential is just beginning to be tapped.
The GBS and Digital Jobs Programme - a partnership between Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator and the Mastercard Foundation, together with five other partners, including Genesis- investigated the potential of these sectors and examined how scalable and meaningful work can be achieved for young people. Genesis, through its digital livelihoods team of industry insiders and local practitioners, focuses on digital job creation in Africa by unlocking global demand.
With a target to create 200,000 youth opportunities in Rwanda and South Africa by 2030, the programme aims to catalyse systems-level change and influence the wider ecosystem.
Three learning products have been developed in the first year of the programme, each offering insights on the roles of the GBS and digital sectors in delivering opportunities for young people, for employers, and for wider society.
Here is what they found:
Transformation reaches families
Transformative impact: Youth opportunities in South Africa's GBS and digital sectors act as engines of socio-economic change. For every single person employed, research shows they support between three and ten dependents. Benefits flow to employers, families, and whole communities.
The AI shift: augmentation, not replacement
The skilling revolution finds that over 40% of current tasks in Africa's business process outsourcing and IT-enabled services sectors are susceptible to automation, hitting junior roles hardest. However, the largest projected impact of AI is not job replacement but role augmentation and increased productivity. The task now is to shift skilling approaches to meet this moment.
The GBS and digital sectors are proven, scalable engines for youth employment. By 2030, half of all new entrants into the global labour force will come from Sub-Saharan Africa. Around 15 million new, dignified, meaningful jobs will need to be created annually, with even more required as populations continue to rise. The GBS and digital sectors will need to be part of the answer.