With the world’s largest free-trade area, Africa should build on its expanded workforce to stimulate economic growth. Between 2000 and 2016, the continent experienced strong growth rates of 4.7 per cent per annum, although this growth has been neither homogeneous nor inclusive. For instance, reductions in levels of poverty and inequality were recorded in only 17 out of 49 African countries surveyed between 2000 and 2020.