00:00Jennifer tell us what's the crux of the opportunity here for Africa. That's right. It's very interesting if you take a look Paul at what we've heard from experts over the past few decades. There's been quite a bit of debate about the potential opportunity here for the continent as far as this demographic dividend pertains. If we just take a look at what we've seen over the past few decades in population. The continent back in the 50s accounted for just under 200 million people.
00:30And we've seen that population double to just about 1.5 billion people. And the expectation is that at the turn of the century that will increase even more so to 4 billion people. And you pointed to some of the reasons why we're seeing that. We are seeing improved access to medical care. We're seeing declining infant mortality rates and then also persistently high birth rates. And compare that with what we're seeing elsewhere in the world. And I'm looking at Europe and Asia here.
00:59And so really the potential is quite huge. Not just in terms of population growth but there's also really an opportunity that experts point to in terms of the continent being a powerhouse agriculturally and also in the manufacturing space.
01:16Over the past few years we have seen African countries and different cultures really boom globally as far as arts go and the film and TV space. And so the potential here is huge. But as you were mentioning there in the intro there is a fine line between when this is a potential and potentially when it's not.
01:37Yeah let's talk about that a little bit more. Can you unpack the concern here for economists. Sure. There really is a fine line if you take a look at it because of course we have seen this demographic dividend
01:53and be beneficial for a number of other countries in particular China. But again if if we do in fact though see the population growth without the economic stimulation it could
02:05very much be a liability for a number of economies. And what we've seen from experts they actually point to quite a bit of data quite a bit of data that helps
02:15back that up. And in particular if we look at the ratio of working age population to dependents that is a key metric that will really help illustrate
02:25whether or not this is actually an opportunity. If we take a look at East Asia in particular they were able to see a lot of economic success because they
02:34created a number of jobs in addition to this rapid industrialization that we saw in parts of the world. The concern here is that potentially African
02:44countries move a bit slower than what we've seen elsewhere. And if that does happen we could continue to see some of the issues as far as you
02:53know low unemployment and poverty actually enhance if we don't see this economic balance happening. And so there's quite a bit for a number of
03:03countries to focus on in terms of making sure they're attracting the right capital into the countries ensuring that there are jobs and ensuring that this
03:11population is not just well educated they're also well trained for a number of the jobs that are going to be needed. And so the potential is there. The
03:20opportunity is there. But it is going to be a very delicate balance. And luckily a number of countries on the continent can look elsewhere across the world to see
03:28potentially what to do in order to ensure that they are maximizing the potential here.
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