• Africa must invest in renewable energy to unlock 30M green jobs by 2030

• Retraining of fossil fuel workers underway in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and others

• PMI warns of skills gap; 2.1M project managers needed for transition by 2035

African governments and industries must make major investments in renewable energy manufacturing and deployment. According to George Asamani, the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) regional director for Sub-Saharan Africa, such efforts could unlock millions of new jobs.

In an analysis published Thursday, November 6, on Engineering News, Asamani said that up to 30 million new green jobs could be created by 2030, but that will depend on local production and technical training.

To meet this challenge, Asamani noted that African universities and technical institutes are steadily adapting to the needs of the energy transition. In Nigeria, petroleum and gas engineers are being retrained for solar energy and energy efficiency roles. Similar initiatives are expanding across the continent. In Kenya, geothermal energy is creating new opportunities for former thermal technicians. Programs in Rwanda, Morocco, and Ghana are reorienting fossil fuel engineers toward hydropower, wind, and hybrid projects. These efforts aim to build a talent pool capable of driving the deployment of renewable energy while retraining workers from legacy industries.

Urgency to Act

Asamani emphasized that Africa must move quickly to address its energy transition challenges. The continent still has 600 million people without access to electricity, while coal remains a cheap and reliable source of power, highlighting a stark paradox. South Africa illustrates this clearly. Research from the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) shows that nearly 100,000 coal miners and power plant workers risk losing their jobs as mines close. The SARB noted that their mostly semi-skilled profiles rarely align with the demands of renewable energy projects.

According to PMI’s Talent Gap Report 2025-2035, between 1.6 million and 2.1 million additional project management professionals will be needed by 2035 to support transition infrastructure and technologies, representing a 75 percent increase over current levels. The report also estimates that 10 percent of global project investments are lost annually due to poor performance, an inefficiency especially costly for Africa’s infrastructure portfolio.

Asamani’s warning comes amid high youth unemployment across Africa. The International Labour Organization (ILO) reported that nearly 62 million young people in Sub-Saharan Africa were not in employment, education, or training in 2023, representing more than a quarter of the region’s youth population. Among those who are employed, nearly three-quarters hold precarious jobs, often informal or low-skilled.

Félicien Houindo Lokossou