I recently posted a Facebook comment on an article titled Beware Africa’s “Middle Class”. The author – Bright B. Simons – provided an accurate analysis of the nature of today’s African middle class of consumers. He rightly warned foreign investors to avoid stereotypes in making sense of this group.
For instance, to estimate the size of Africa’s middle class, Simons compared data from multiple authoritative sources one would presume reliable. They were poles apart in their estimates!
That’s a nightmarish scenario for investment decision makers keen to pin down facts to work with.
What’s more, far from being homogenous, Simons noted that Africa’s middle class is really a mix of shades – not fitting into familiar “standard classifications.” And he’s quite right.
Many Young and Educated Africans Do Not Belong to Africa’s Current Middle Class: Surprised?
For me, the most striking revelation in Simons’ article, was his observation that (contrary to the norm in developed societies) young and educated Africans do not make up majority of the emerging African middle class.
If anything, they lack economic traits (e.g. purchasing power) characterising “middle-class status elsewhere”.
Simons says Africa’s middle class today, is increasingly dominated by the “rarely well educated” – but street smart – cross border trading types. Dubai-frequenting ones he calls “suitcase merchants”, who buy cheap fast moving or second hand consumer goods, for dispatch to “open-air markets” back home.
Not surprisingly, this new consumer “class” lack tastes and preferences typical of the conventional middle class.
Bright Simons should know these things…
He invented the SMS short code system used by his company (mPedigree Network – an award winning mobile service launched to fight fake-drug trading, by authenticating pharmaceuticals across Africa and Asia).
This work brings him in contact with members of Africa’s unusual middle class possibly on a daily basis.
He’s also based in Africa (and black) – making him uniquely positioned to extract deep truths, that may otherwise be hard to uncover.
This Situation Calls Our Schooling System to Question
Simons’ observation makes it obvious we need a different kind of educational system.
Unschooled chaps with street-level business know-how are outdoing our graduates economically.
Something is NOT right here!
Simons apparently recognises that fact too. He describes our educational system, as being out of tune with the socio-economic requirements of today’s Africa.
And he proves his point by contrasting two groups of “consumers” in Africa’s middle class economy.
On one hand there are the swelling ranks of what he terms an “educated underclass” (African graduates churned out by our educational system).
And on the other, there is the “uneducated” but “rapidly rising underclass”.
The presence of both groups sends out confusing signals to prospective investors – who are used to looking for tell-tale “market and consumer behaviour” they see in middle classes from other societies
Quite rightly, Simons calls the described situation “an amazing contradiction”.
I’ve written about the need to overhaul our educational system in many of my past parenting articles. In them, I make elaborate reference to eye-opening write-ups – by Robert Kiyosaki, Sir Ken Robinson, Seth Godin and others, that can guide overhaul of our educational system.
Maybe with the picture painted by Simons, more African adults – parents especially – will pay attention.
Maybe.
What You Can Do As a Parent…
I strongly suggest you read Simons’ article, if you are an African parent (or plan to be).
It explains a trend we’re seeing more of, that strongly suggests conventional schooling may not help your child succeed economically.
In fact, I honestly believe what Simons revealed in his article, is embarrassing to educated African adults – parents especially.
He has basically shown that most young and educated Africans cannot match the purchasing power of their “uneducated” middle class contemporaries.
By implication, they have to play second fiddle, to less schooled contemporaries – sometimes as employees!
The edge they were told schooling would give them is NOWHERE to be found!
This can be quite humiliating, frustrating – and could make a person lose faith in formal schooling.
I say this from VERY personal – potentially traumatizing – experience.
African parents must help their kids get better prepared to achieve economic independence in the real world.
To do this, we must get more involved in coaching our kids on how to succeed in life out of school/paid employment – as early as possible.
We can no longer depend on formal schooling alone.
Our educational system still prepares people mainly for paid employment (which gets harder to find daily). It rarely prepares them for entrepreneurship (which is becoming more viable as the way of life, even if part-time).
Final Words: What I Mean…and What I Have NOT Said
Depending on who is reading, this line of argument I’ve adopted can be “provocative” 
Like I said in my Facebook post on this, I am NOT saying formal schooling is useless.
However, I argue that a lot of what we teach today, offers very limited value for succeeding economically (especially outside paid employment) in 21st century Africa.
Since jobs are now harder to find, it follows that our schools need to change what they teach.
In Nigeria for instance, many of my uneducated “in-laws” from the East (my kids are half-Igbo), buy and sell from when they can walk.
A good number usually end up achieving superior economic means, compared to their counterparts who choose to attend (or finish) schooling.
It is for this reason that I constantly challenge my kids with real-world relevant skill building activities.
My purpose is to help them LEARN OUTSIDE school, even as they continue formal schooling.
If you love your child, do the same for her from today. Or tomorrow, you may have yourself to blame.
As we say in Africa: “A word is enough for the wise”.