SA outranks regional peers in report

SOUTH Africa outperformed most of its regional peers in the Global Human Capital Index in building capacity through education, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Human Capital Report (GHCR) 2017 released yesterday.

Ranked 87th out of 130 countries, sub-Saharan Africa’s second-largest economy developed 58% of its workforce and “there are bright spots too when it comes to the development of future skills – for example, ranking 19th for staff training”, stated the report.

However, the country’s “Achilles heel” was the deployment of skills throughout the workforce, where it ranked 109th. The GHCR cited chronic unemployment, under-employment and a large informal sector as the main reasons for this.

“South Africa has the continent’s highest share of its workforce in highskilled occupations and is well regarded for its staff training, but underperforms when it comes to school quality,” the GHCR said.

Sub-Saharan Africa was the lowest ranked region in the index.

Sub-Saharan African countries that outperformed South Africa were Rwanda (71st), Ghana (72nd), Cameroon (73rd) and Mauritius (74th). These countries had developed more than 60% of their human capital, according to the report.

Nigeria, sub-Saharan Africa’s largest economy, was ranked 114th. The region’s most populous country had a relatively large pool of tertiary-educated workers, particularly among the older generation, and was comparatively strong in staff training, according to the report.

However, it recorded low primary and secondary education attainment across all age groups, and one of the lowest primary school enrolment rates globally. “Nigeria still has plenty of work ahead as it seeks to build a more resilient, future-proof workforce. Relatively speaking, it does better in ensuring the talents at its disposal are deployed effectively within the economy.”

Ethiopia was the lowest ranked high-population country in the region at 127th, and fourth from the bottom on the index overall – ahead only of Senegal, Mauritania and Yemen.

Kenya, ranked 78th, did relatively well in terms of deployment. However, worryingly for a country with aspirations to become the tech hub of Africa, it performed poorly in development of future skills and know-how.

Botswana (91st), Zambia (80th) and Namibia (99th) were found to be successful in building human capital potential. –