Good afternoon. Another report has come out about Mozambique’s ballooning population (see below). The fact that the country is producing too many children, and that its population looks set to double in the 30 or so years to 2050, is well known. What is missing is a discussion about what the government should be doing to provide for a rising population.
Something in the region of two-thirds of Mozambicans are aged under 25. In 2023, about half the population of roughly 34m people were aged under 15, according to the website Our World In Data. In the coming years, many of those children will reach working age, in a country totally unable to provide enough jobs or educational opportunities for young people. Too many of them end up scratching out a miserable living as informal street sellers. In desperation they stand in the middle of the road to attract custom, and some of them get injured or killed in collisions with passing traffic.
The full Daily Briefing continues below for Pro subscribers. Subscribers to the Zitamar News tier can read the top half, including the full leader article, here.
The government’s traditional response is that it needs more schools to be built and more teachers to be trained, and that it has to go once again with the begging bowl to donor agencies for money. Certainly more schools and teachers are badly needed. But begging for money and throwing money at the problem is not enough, and it is increasingly unviable in a world where donor countries like the United States are increasingly reducing their aid. What is needed is for the government to foster private sector investment and entrepreneurialism that encourages the creation of education and work opportunities.
