Marrakech – Industry leaders gathered in the future of Gitex ‘The Future of Finance phase to discuss how small and medium -sized companies (SME) form the employment landscape of Africa.
The committee took place on the last day of Gitex Africa 2025 in Marrakech.
The role of SMEs in the development of a future workforce is more important than ever, since it contribute 40% to the total employment on the entire African continent.
Khouloud Abejja, director of digital transformation at the agency of Digital Development (ADD), explained the unique advantages that SMEs bring for the development of the workforce.
“SMEs are smaller, so often they offer the workforce more effective and more diverse opportunities,” she said, realizing that “this enables employees to gain practical experience in various digital tools, platforms and processes.”
Abejja pointed out that the agility of SME offers them an advantage over larger companies, as “they enable employees to use digital tools quickly and to build partnerships with schools to offer trainees, internships and mentors.”
In the meantime, these small companies compared significant challenges, in particular when setting specialized talents. “SMEs usually only have limited financial resources, so they have restrictions on investing in specialized talents or setting them in special stands,” said Abejja.
“You can also be exposed to generation expectations, differences between young people and the elderly within the company, and everything that is related to upskilling requires really close investments,” she added.
Kami, founder and CEO of Uniti Networks, concentrated on how digital an important obstacle remains. “The amount of digital exclusion in Africa has not increased by 1% since 2020. It is absolutely shocking,” he said.
It emphasized that internet access is not sufficient, which increases the importance of participation. “How do people take part in the environment?”
So that SMEs can thrive, believes that the focus for a strong and effective inclusion of the workforce in an ever -growing digitized world should be on practical solutions.
“I think the keyword is productivity. With all the types of investments, they make the investment and harvest the return tomorrow,” he noted and asked: “What happens between these two times?”
Both speakers agreed that the development of digital skills for Africa’s workers is essential.
“In our world, soft skills are of crucial importance, since it enables the person to have good knowledge of their skills and to communicate bosses, colleagues, colleagues and to react to the needs.
