Kenya to create 240,000 green jobs in five years
Delegates at the KICC in Nairobi on May 3, 2024, during the National Workshop on Green Jobs and Skills Development in Kenya.
Kenya is expected to create the second highest number of direct green jobs in Africa by 2030 as the race for preserving or restoring the environment gathers pace, according to a study by advocacy group Financial Sector Deepening (FSD).
The report titled Forecasting green jobs in Africa says the country will generate 240,000 new jobs linked to preservation and restoration of the environment, being the same as Nigeria and only beaten by South Africa (275,000).
The FSD report, co-produced with recruitment firm Shortlist, forecasts that Ethiopia will manage 133,000 jobs, followed by DRC Congo at 47,000 while the rest of the countries in Africa will see an extra 1.04 million jobs, bringing the cumulative new green openings in Africa to 3.23 million.
Intentional action
“South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria represent the highest job creation potential (16 per cent) due to population, gross domestic product and industry maturity,” says the report calling for focused skilling efforts to ensure an ample talent pipeline.
“Achieving or exceeding these targets requires persistent and intentional action from stakeholders (i.e., learning and training institutions, funders and investors, large employers and industry associations, and policy makers and researchers) on skilling and enablement.”
The report says Kenya’s highest number of jobs in five years to the end of 2030 are going to be solar-related (111,000), an equivalent of 40 per cent of the forecasted green jobs during this period. FSD said Kenya's advancement in solar technology use makes it a value chain with the highest job creation potential.
22,000 new jobs
During the same period, geothermal is expected to create 22,000 new jobs followed by power transmission and distribution (18,000), waste remediation and recycling (18,000), battery storage (16,000), electric two wheelers (14,200), wind (12,000), hydro (11,000), aquaculture and poultry (7,000) and charging infrastructure (5,900).
The report is calling for investment in formal education and training programmes to establish or enhance formal education projects and vocational training curricula that offer technical skills for targeted green jobs, especially in sectors with the highest potential for job creation.
Employers are also being asked to invest in on-the-job skills development programmes such as apprenticeship that equips workers with emerging skills, and offer continuous professional development.
The portion of green talent workers —those with the knowledge or skills needed to support environmental and business sustainability— is rising in Kenya in line with the global race to cut carbon emissions.
