“In the long arc of human history, development has never been a product of charity. It is built by those who go forth and export.”
Daniel Yu, Exporters Without Borders
We believe development comes from large, profitable, private-sector businesses that employ many people. Today we are launching a fellowship for exceptionally talented people who care about industrialising Africa. You will be placed in a key role in a manufacturing firm in Africa to build real experience, with the chance to help it grow or even build your own export manufacturing business down the line.
Why export manufacturing
Extreme poverty is now overwhelmingly an African challenge. As Asia has industrialised and grown, the number of people living in extreme poverty there has collapsed. In Sub-Saharan Africa, while the proportion of the population living in extreme poverty has fallen, the total has risen, and the region is now home to most of the world’s extreme poor.
Every year, 10 to 12 million young people enter the workforce, and fewer than 3 million formal jobs are created to meet them. Most end up hustling in the informal economy, not because they want to but because there is nothing steadier on offer. To lift the floor for the hundreds of millions living on a few dollars a day, we need more payrolls.
No country has ever grown rich on aid. They have done it by building businesses, and above all by manufacturing things the rest of the world wants to buy. Textiles first, and then moving up the ladder. It is the path that the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Mauritius, China and many more took. Sell to global markets and you are no longer capped by your small local market. A firm can grow as far as global demand will take it and it learns to match global productivity standards.
As wages rise in China and across Asia, the lowest-cost production is moving overseas. Africa, with the youngest workforce in the world, relatively low labour costs, favourable tariff access to the US, EU, GCC and China ought to grab this opportunity.
Just how much is at stake is clear from the countries that have already made the climb. In 1960, South Korea was about as poor in GDP per capita terms as Ghana (although not in terms of literacy, state capacity, etc.). Then it industrialised and built itself into an export powerhouse, and the two economies diverged completely.
And it’s not just governments that can start export booms. It can start with a single firm. In the late 1960s, a handful of Americans in their early thirties founded Floramérica, the first cut-flower exporter in Colombia. They built a multinational cold chain from scratch, negotiating cargo space with airlines, designing refrigerated trucks to handle Andean mountain roads, and learning to meet strict US plant import standards. Within six months they were exporting to the United States, and within three years they employed 400 people.
Then, once local staff mastered the trade they went on to start their own ventures, seeding an entire industry. Today Colombia is the world’s second-largest flower exporter, worth around $2.4 billion a year and employing some 200,000 people. One of the founders of Floramérica actually went on to launch one of Chile’s first salmon exporters, now a $6.5 billion industry employing tens of thousands more.
A few talented and hardworking pioneers can have a transformative effect.
These businesses are not easy to build. They are gritty, hands-on, capital-intensive operations defined by physical logistics. This is the opposite of building a SaaS business and there is no Y Combinator for export factories (until today…). But, the unglamorous industries are the ones that pull people out of poverty at scale, and they need talented people who are willing to trade a cushy office for the factory floor.
That is where the fellowship comes in.
The Fellowship
The Africa Jobs Fund Fellowship places talented people into real operating roles inside manufacturing businesses across Africa.
Anyone serious about this work should start with radical immersion: real time on the ground in a business, learning the things you cannot get from a policy brief or a business school classroom. You join a manufacturing business in Africa, take on genuine responsibility from day one, and come away with real experience and a real network in the sector.
You’ll need to commit for a minimum of one to two years, depending on your level of experience.
After the fellowship, some fellows may stay on with their business, perhaps helping them to grow. Others will take on a new venture inside it, like building out a new export line from scratch. And the most ambitious will hopefully go on to start their own export manufacturing business, with backing from the Africa Jobs Fund.
If you care about having a real impact: serious responsibility, a steep learning curve, and a front-row seat to how economic growth actually happens then I can’t think of a better opportunity.
We have seen it work
The programme is not entirely new. It draws on the experience of the GPI Sustainable Fellowship, run for two cohorts by Masika Ventures, who operate three businesses in Tanzania across agri-processing, export and related sectors. The fellows who have come through it have done serious work, and they describe it better than we can.
“The level of responsibility and trust I was given was considerable. The fellowship is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to change their life and work almost completely and gain solid skills.”
Giuseppe, who led the build out of a biochar factory in rural Tanzania
“If you want to be a part of operations that challenges what you know, puts you in the field from day one, and rewards hands-on problem solving, this fellowship will push you.”
Cherotich, who built an aquaculture management system from the ground up
Who this is for
The fellowship is open to early-career people and senior professionals alike, and we will match you to a role that fits your experience.
We are looking for exceptionally talented people who are comfortable with ambiguity, who enjoy operational problem-solving, who can move between strategy and execution, and who can handle real responsibility early. Most of all, people who genuinely care about African industrialisation and want to help build businesses that last.
It is for talented Africans who want to build at home. It is for the diaspora, the person doing well in banking in London or as an analyst in New York who wants to come back and build something real. And it is for anyone, from anywhere, who is excited about driving growth and raising incomes in Africa.
Apply, or get in touch
If you want to industrialise Africa, you can apply here: Fellowship Application Form
And if you run a manufacturing business in Africa and would like an exceptionally talented new team member, we would love to hear from you: Get in touch!
If you want to be the Fellowship Lead at Africa Jobs Fund then apply here: Fellowship Lead Role at AJF
To learn more about Africa Jobs Fund then check-out our website and please share this opportunity with your network so that no one misses out!
Excited about this a lot more than the relocation fund. Well done.
Really intrigued, never seen a program of this kind before!