West Africa’s economic future depends on how well we turn ambition into sustainable livelihoods. Yet for decades, we have tended to talk about economic opportunity in fairly narrow terms.

Study hard. Get qualifications. Find a good job. Build a career.

It remains a perfectly valid aspiration. But across West Africa, it cannot be the only route we prepare people for.

Our region is young, ambitious and increasingly connected. Every year, millions of young people enter working age with expectations that are fundamentally different from those of the generation before them. Women are seeking greater economic independence. Technology is lowering some barriers to participation while creating entirely new forms of work.

Yet the formal economy cannot absorb everyone who wants, or needs, to participate in it. In a July 2024 article, the World Bank reported that six million young people enter the labour force each year across Western and Central Africa, while only about half a million new jobs are created.

The question we therefore need to ask is not simply: How do we create more jobs?

It is also: How do we widen the number of legitimate, responsible pathways through which people can participate in the economy?

Economic participation is bigger than employment

A healthy economy needs salaried employees. It needs large companies and public institutions. It needs engineers, teachers, doctors, bankers and civil servants.

But it also needs small traders, independent professionals, farmers, creators, artisans, technology entrepreneurs, family businesses, consultants, distributors and people providing services within their communities.

Many West Africans already earn their livelihoods in these ways.

For some, these livelihoods are a deliberate choice; for others, they reflect limited alternatives. Our focus should be on helping people move from informal and vulnerable economic activity towards more productive, skilled and secure participation.

That requires a broader definition of entrepreneurship.

Not every entrepreneur will build a technology unicorn or raise millions of dollars in venture capital. Most never will.

Entrepreneurship can begin much more simply: identifying a need, providing a product or service, finding customers, managing income and expenses, and gradually building something sustainable.

For someone who has never had access to formal employment, even that first step can be significant. But starting a business is only the beginning. Access to customers, suitable finance and practical support helps determine whether it can become a sustainable livelihood.

More predictable trade policies aligned with the African Continental Free Trade Area could also help smaller businesses reach wider markets, as the World Bank has highlighted.

Opportunity must be responsible

Expanding access to entrepreneurship cannot mean lowering the standards around it.

As more people search online for ways to earn additional income, the distinction between a genuine economic opportunity and an unrealistic promise becomes increasingly important.

No legitimate form of entrepreneurship guarantees success.

Income depends on many factors: effort, capability, demand, competition, experience and timing. Anyone entering an entrepreneurial activity deserves to understand clearly what is required, what it costs, where the risks lie and how income is generated.

Businesses also have a responsibility to address exaggerated income claims and misleading offers made by those representing them. Clear information and accessible complaints procedures should be part of every opportunity.

Entrepreneurship should expand people’s choices, not exploit their aspirations.

Governments, businesses, civil society and law-enforcement agencies therefore have a shared interest in creating environments where legitimate opportunities can grow while fraudulent ones become harder to operate.

Skills may matter as much as capital

When entrepreneurship is discussed, the conversation often begins with access to finance.

Financing matters, but someone starting a small business also needs to understand customers, communicate effectively, manage cash flow, use digital tools, negotiate, solve problems and build trust.

These capabilities remain valuable even when a particular venture does not succeed.

Selling responsibly can strengthen communication. Managing customers develops service skills. Tracking income and expenses builds financial discipline and helps people distinguish revenue from profit. Building networks develops relationship skills. Using social platforms for business can build digital capability.

We should therefore think beyond simply creating entrepreneurs and focus on creating economically capable individuals.

People may move between employment, entrepreneurship and independent work several times during their lives. The skills developed in one setting can travel with them into the next.

Women need pathways designed around reality

Across our region, women participate extensively in commerce and informal enterprise, yet their economic potential remains constrained by unequal access to finance, networks, technology, training and, in many cases, time.

The need to widen participation is particularly evident among young women. ILOSTAT’s May 2026 analysis, using 2022 data, found that the employment-to-population ratio for women aged 15 to 29 in Senegal was just 22.5 per cent.

Economic models that offer greater flexibility can help widen participation. But flexibility alone is not empowerment.

Women also need skills, financial literacy, digital tools, mentoring and credible business networks. Training schedules and delivery should recognise care responsibilities. The opportunities available to them must also be transparent and financially viable.

If entrepreneurship is to contribute meaningfully to women’s economic participation, we should look beyond how many women start businesses and ask whether those businesses strengthen their skills, income security and economic independence.

Digital access changes the possibilities

Technology is lowering some barriers to economic activity. BCEAO, the Central Bank of West African States, reports that merchant acceptance points for electronic money in the West African Economic and Monetary Union increased from approximately 1.75 million in 2023 to 3.71 million in 2024. This growth in payment acceptance locations shows the expansion of infrastructure for digital commerce, although a single business may account for more than one acceptance point.

A smartphone can now provide access to customers, payments, education, logistics, financial services and markets that were difficult for small entrepreneurs to reach a generation ago. Artificial intelligence could extend these possibilities further.

A small business owner can increasingly access tools for translation, marketing, design, customer service, bookkeeping and research. Their usefulness depends on affordability, relevant skills and checking the accuracy of what they produce.

But connectivity alone is not enough. People also need the skills to use technology productively. Entrepreneurship programmes should therefore teach not only how to start a business, but how to operate in an increasingly digital marketplace.

We need an ecosystem, not a single solution

There is no single model that will solve West Africa’s employment challenge.

Formal employment, vocational training, small-business development, agriculture, technology startups, creative industries, independent professional work, social enterprise and responsible direct selling can all contribute.

The real objective should be to build an ecosystem in which people have more credible choices.

Governments can create enabling regulation and infrastructure. Educational institutions can equip young people with adaptable skills. Financial institutions can improve access to responsible capital. Businesses can create platforms for participation and invest in training. Civil society and the media can help people distinguish genuine opportunities from fraudulent ones.

Those of us in the private sector must also accept that inclusion comes with responsibility. At QNET, our FinGreen programme focuses on financial literacy through education and training, particularly for young adults and communities with limited access to resources. Its purpose reflects the broader need to help people make informed financial decisions. Training, however, must never be presented as a guarantee of income.

Opening a door is not enough. We must be clear about what lies behind it.

West Africa does not lack ambition. Spend time in Dakar, Accra, Abidjan, Lagos or Lomé and you encounter it everywhere, in markets, small businesses, technology hubs, university campuses and digital platforms.

Our challenge is to turn more of that ambition into sustainable economic participation. That begins by moving beyond the assumption that everyone must follow the same economic path, while continuing to invest in good jobs.

A resilient economy is one in which people have several legitimate opportunities, the skills to make them productive and the knowledge to choose among them. That is how West Africa can turn more of its ambition into lasting economic progress.