In early February at the World Government Summit, Botswana President Duma Boko told host Tucker Carlson about a future at which point Africa’s median age of 19.3 years sets the rules for global trade.
Boko pushed for a way to handle ideas and inventions so they help the global collective and ensuring that intellectual property serves more than the privileged.
Such a message arrives as a few people hold more money than ever before even as the human foundations of older economies start to crack. Elon Musk is almost a trillionaire because of his achievements with SpaceX and Tesla and the Washington Post is navigating major job cuts under Jeff Bezos.
Huge piles of wealth are growing at a point at which populations in wealthy countries begin to shrink. Since borders are getting harder to cross, Africa is finding power in its internal statistics.
The Hard Metrics of Demography
The total of people moving to the United States dropped to 1.3 million by the middle of 2025 and it looks like that sum will fall to around 321,000 by 2026. Europe is experiencing the same squeeze because the European Union might see a much smaller population by 2050.
Countries like Bulgaria and Latvia expect to lose a fifth of their citizens because of birth and moving trends. Older nations are struggling to keep up systems like pensions that were made for a time of endless expansion.
Such an old logic of growth no longer holds as societies age and the pressure on productivity increases. Automation is struggling to fill the gaps left by a shrinking workforce and Africa is operating under a much more vibrant set of demographic logic.
How New Economic Centres Rise
Nigeria has taken a lead in global growth and now adds about 1.5 per cent of the total for the whole world. Lagos is a top spot for tech companies with a value of nearly 10 billion dollars.
Kenya saw its new businesses get 227 million dollars in early 2025 because of systems like M-Pesa that move 1 billion dollars every month. South Africa still has the most advanced money markets and its banks are working on green energy with global groups.
A new trade agreement is building a market that could add 450 billion dollars to local pay. New roads and power lines are being built as a single network for the region and online tools are now the main way people get bank accounts and move goods.
Why Stable Governance Attracts Capital
Botswana stands as a special example of what is possible because it has grown into a stable and wealthy place that handled its diamonds well. President Boko won in 2024 and changed the political world in his country.
His team wants to build an economy that can handle many different things. He has already talked with Elon Musk about internet satellites and launched the first space project for his nation.
A calm change in who is in charge conveys a kind of maturity that people with money like to see. Money usually goes to places where the rules are apparent and the markets are getting bigger. Africa is becoming a better place to invest as its governments get stronger and risks fade away.
A New Era for Chinese Investment
Chinese money has shifted into very specific and careful projects as the partnership has transmuted into a setup that focuses on paying back loans over a long time.
Building projects are now linked to the goal of trading across the whole region. Huawei runs most of the 4G web on the continent and brands like Tecno have sold more than the old global leaders.
Such power is mostly about digital rules. African areas are also using their voice by saying their natural resources must stay home to be turned into products.
New zones are drawing makers of high-tech parts. Places like Rwanda want companies to share their secrets so the value stays within their borders.
Wealth Concentration and the Need for Youth
Experts expected Elon Musk to become the first trillionaire by 2027 after he merged his tech firms. At the same time the Washington Post is experiencing intense cuts that have closed several parts of the paper.
Marty Baron said the moves were made to help the political goals of the owner. Such massive wealth is becoming apparent at a point at which the population in the West starts to dry up.
Older people need a lot of help and care as it is the young who build what comes next.
Rebalancing the Global System
President Boko discussed how having so many young people can help fix the balance of the world. He wants a world where new ideas stay on the continent and wealth is shared by more people.
Although that is a big goal the population is turning it into a way to get a better deal. Global companies are starting to see that older societies mean fewer people to buy things.
Africa will have twice as many people by the middle of the century and its tech spots are growing in Egypt and Morocco. The continent is using the mobile phone lines built over the last decade to launch its own banks and schools.
The logic of the future is on Africa’s side and the main test is whether the leaders will use such an advantage to help everyone. Real results depend on how new trade deals and funding are handled.
A Power Shift Outside the Old Guard
The old ways of being powerful are fading as fewer babies are born in the richest countries. New rules on moving are hastening that fall. People in Africa are decades younger than people in Europe or Asia.
In the end the global economy has to follow where the people are because Africa has the materials and the buyers and the young workers that the rest of the world is missing. Working together is giving the continent the size it needs to be heard.
Nigeria is growing faster than people thought and the tech in Kenya is moving into other countries. Botswana exposed that good leaders are real and South Africa has the financial tools.
When all such elements come together in a trade area it makes a massive force. President Boko’s call for fairness is now backed by a shifting reality where Africa has the workers and the buyers the world needs to keep going. The way they use such leverage will define the next decade.
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