There is a growing recognition among global investors, economists and policymakers that the world’s economic map is being redrawn. The familiar centres of gravity that dominated the 20th century are no longer the anchors of the 21st. A new region is steadily, structurally and irreversibly coming into focus as the world’s next growth engine: Africa.
This is not a feel-good narrative or a hopeful projection. It is written into the demographic, urban, technological and consumer patterns that will define the next three decades. By 2050 one in four people on Earth will be African. Africa’s population has grown tenfold since 1950 and remains the youngest in the world, with 40% of the population under the age of 14 and a median age below 20. While the rest of the world is ageing, Africa is getting younger — a rare and powerful advantage.
Urbanisation is reinforcing the momentum. By 2030 the continent’s top 50 cities are expected to generate more than 40% of Africa’s GDP, concentrated in hubs that are already demonstrating explosive entrepreneurial activity. The IMF projects Africa will be the fastest-growing region in the world over the coming decade. These are not abstract forecasts; they reflect structural forces that are already reshaping investment flows, supply chains and long-term global demand.
However, despite this extraordinary trajectory, the single greatest misunderstanding about Africa’s economic future is the belief that momentum alone creates prosperity. Prosperity emerges only when entrepreneurs translate these conditions into real businesses, real jobs and real value. Growth becomes inevitable only when entrepreneurs make it inevitable.
Prosperity emerges only when entrepreneurs translate these conditions into real businesses, real jobs and real value. Growth becomes inevitable only when entrepreneurs make it inevitable.
This is especially true in emerging markets, where one rule holds across all continents: capital does not precede performance; it follows performance. Investors are not moved by sentiment or goodwill. They move when they see disciplined execution, transparent governance and companies that can scale sustainably. If Africa wants more capital — and it needs much more — Africa needs more entrepreneurs who deliver consistently at global standards.
This is where high-growth founders come in, and why Endeavor’s model is particularly suited to the continent’s stage of development. Endeavor is a global entrepreneurial network operating across more than 40 markets, with a focus on identifying and supporting high-impact founders in emerging and growth economies. It operates on a simple but powerful premise: a small number of exceptional founders, if supported at the right moment, can transform entire economies.
Rather than working at the earliest stages, Endeavor concentrates on scale-ups, entrepreneurs who have proven product-market fit and are ready to grow into regional or global leaders, connects them to a global network of mentors, operators and investors, and backs them as they scale. These founders do not speak about potential; they demonstrate it. They form the backbone of the entrepreneurial ecosystem that Africa needs, one built on engines of acceleration and companies capable of compounding results.
To understand Africa’s entrepreneurial future we must start by recognising its entrepreneurial past. African innovators have already reshaped global industries.
To understand Africa’s entrepreneurial future we must start by recognising its entrepreneurial past. African innovators have already reshaped global industries. South African Nobel laureate Allan Cormack co-developed the CT scanner, transforming modern medicine. “Please Call Me”, invented by Nkosana Makate, became a telecommunications standard replicated globally. M-Pesa, born in Kenya, became the international blueprint for mobile money. Rwanda pioneered drone-based medical logistics long before advanced economies attempted it.
These are not anecdotes. They are case studies in how African ingenuity leads global innovation. What is striking is that these breakthroughs emerged not from ecosystems of abundance but from ecosystems of constraint. African scale-ups are forged in environments defined by infrastructure gaps, policy uncertainty, currency volatility and competition from multinational incumbents and informal markets. The entrepreneurs who thrive here are shaped by necessity: they build with precision in ambiguity, they operate with resilience rather than optionality, and they learn quickly that constraint is not a limitation; it is a catalyst.
Market-makers
This mindset matters because Africa’s economic future hinges more on the behaviour of its entrepreneurs than on the scale of its markets. The continent will add hundreds of millions of people to its labour force in the next 25 years. No government or corporate sector can absorb that demand. Only entrepreneurs, specifically high-growth entrepreneurs, can create jobs at the scale required.
Globally the pattern is consistent: large institutions add jobs slowly, start-ups fail frequently and most small businesses remain small. It is the small fraction of founders who scale that account for the majority of new job creation. The impact of these scale-ups is larger than the employment figures inside their walls.
Endeavor’s research on the multiplier effect shows that successful, high-growth founders act as force multipliers in their ecosystems. Employees spin out new companies. Alumni join and strengthen other scale-ups. Founders mentor, invest and accelerate the next generation. Supply chains expand. Whole sectors advance. One entrepreneur does not simply create jobs. They create the conditions for thousands of jobs to exist.
Africa is not marginal to the global entrepreneurial story. It is becoming central to it. The continent’s demographic trajectory, its urbanisation patterns, its deepening markets and the resilience of its founders all point to the same conclusion: Africa is poised to become the world’s next great engine of growth. However, the outcome will depend on whether its entrepreneurs are empowered, supported and challenged to scale with global ambition.
Africa does not need entrepreneurs who can merely survive its complexity. It needs entrepreneurs who can lead through it. If the continent matches its structural momentum with founders who deliver consistently at scale, Africa will not only participate in the next chapter of global growth, it will define it.
• Swartzberg, a co-founder of Discovery, chairs Endeavor South Africa.
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