By Jean Lucien Kodjani, Chairman Afreeka Holding,Director Millenium African Institute,
While Francophone Africa has experienced robust macroeconomic growth – with its GDP multiplied by 6 between 2000 and 2025 – its employment structure remains dominated by informal survival economies. According to the International Labour Organization, this sector absorbs nearly 90% of the active workforce in sub-Saharan Africa. This article analyzes why this subsistence economy hinders industrialization and how a transition to a structured entrepreneurship is the only path toward sustainable sovereignty.
Across Francophone Africa, the informal sector employs almost 90% of the working population. Despite demonstrating remarkable ingenuity, this reality masks a concerning structural issue: the subsistence trap. To move from being a “transit market” to a productive powerhouse, the continent must transform this raw energy into a structured secondary sector.
Resilience is not development: Day-to-day survival prevents capital accumulation. While the manufacturing sector accounts for 16% of global GDP, it remains stagnant at less than 10% in sub-Saharan Africa. Without reinvested profits, there is no mechanization, no research, and no sustainable development. This “resilience” is, in reality, a virtue of resistance that, without structure, condemns entrepreneurs to the glass ceiling of micro-activity. Development isn’t about multiplying small resale businesses; it’s about densifying production units capable of generating economies of scale.
The atomization of wealth: The tragedy of the subsistence economy lies in the fragmentation of value. Africa spends approximately $55 billion annually importing food it could produce itself. Where a thousand micro-vendors share meager margins on imported products, a single local processing industrial unit would retain that value. According to UNCTAD, the manufacturing value added per capita in Africa is only $190, compared to more than $1,500 in emerging Asian countries. By remaining in the informal sector, we disperse our strengths instead of uniting them around integrated value chains.
The cost of financial invisibility: Informality comes at a steep price: exclusion from the financial system. The World Bank estimates the financing gap for African SMEs at over $330 billion. Without certified accounting, subsistence entrepreneurs are invisible to banks. This disconnect prevents the technological leap to the secondary sector. Financial education and formalization are therefore not administrative constraints, but strategic assets for accessing the productive capital needed for industrialization. Toward an entrepreneurship of builders: The challenge for African youth is to exit the precarious comfort of resale to embrace the complexity of manufacturing. Moving from “resourceful” to “industry captain” requires a radical shift in mindset. The continent’s economic salvation will not come from aid, but from our ability to structure our businesses so they become institutions capable of transforming our resources on our soil. This is how we will finally plug the “leaky bucket” of our economies.
About Jean Lucien Kodjani,
With years of experience in the financial industry, including at Deloitte, Jean Lucien founded Afreeka Capital (a member of Afreeka Holding) and mobilized nearly €10 million from the BOAD in 2025 for agricultural value chains. He executes mandates ranging from €10 million to over €100 million by connecting high-impact projects with global capital. His next book focuses on the structural transformation necessary for the continent’s economic sovereignty.
