According to data provided by Pew Research Centre in one of their studies, it could be estimated that by 2050, Sub Saharan Africa will have over a billion Christian and Muslim population.

The UNDP’s projection of 2019 also indicates that Sub-Saharan Africa will have a total population of 2.12 billion by the year 2050.

All things being equal, the religious leaders of these two major faith groups will be influencing almost half of the population in that region of Africa lying below the equator.

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Currentlty, young people constitute the majority of the religious followers in Africa. This presents an opportunity and extra responsibility to religious leaders to mould these followers who are still full of potential, in all areas of life, including their work life.

That extra responsibility means that religious leaders should support their most valuable members by exploring creative and innovative ways to grow spiritually and economically.

The youth generally are financially handicapped and face diverse challenges, including a lack of networks, work experiences and access to capital to start businesses. These indicators imply that, although, it is the primary responsibility of governments and national institutions, to invest in its youth, faith-based groups could help to prevent a total degeneration of decent living for its future population, reduce poverty and avert a major security threat in Sub-Sahara Africa.

Among the many ways that faith-based institutions can deploy to enable their members, especially the youth, escape poverty which robs followers of dignity, and support them to grow economically, include following:

Mentorship and Empowerment

Entrepreneurship as a technical skill development is not only to be offered in schools. To effectively nurture the youth into entrepreneurs, faith-based institutions should connect these youth to role models and mentors, primarily available amongst its members. If a church or a mosque lacks such role models and mentors in a particular field, they could outsource a professional to guide and develop their youth on the entrepreneurship journey.

Members of the same faith group who have walked the entrepreneurship journey, are in a unique position to, by way of mentoring, model the way for these young adults to appreciate what responsible living looks like, and how it can be attained.

Youth Business Centres and bootcamps

There is an abundance of young religious followers who have attained academic qualifications but cannot obtain any gainful employment in Sub-Sahara Africa.

Some of these youth spend most of their time in churches especially, for prayer sessions that are held within the most productive hours of the day. These youth can be supported to turn around their lives and that of the community through entrepreneurship.

In addition to praying to satisfy a religious mandate, faith groups could start a business incubation centre and occasional bootcamps, where youth enterprises can gain access to mentors, training, shared space or capital.

Funding valuable projects

Access to funding raises one of the biggest hindrances to entrepreneurship in Africa. The youth are particularly in a disadvantaged position because, a majority do not have land, social capital or jobs to use as a security to access loans.

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But faith-based institutions are better positioned to support the youth in accessing funding. One way could be to pool resources as a group into a revolving fund to provide financing for young members with promising business ideas.

Another option can be through guaranteeing loans for those with credible and market relevant business ventures or helping members to develop proposals writing skills to access seed capital for such projects.

In times such as we live in, enabling members, the youth, to lead better lives through entrepreneurship is an innovative form of evangelism that has the potential for membership multiplication.

Action, it is said, speaks louder than words.