Youth, people who reached adulthood in early 21st century, prefer to venture into agriculture to ICT, entertainment, online businesses and logistics as a side business.

GeoPoll’s second report on sub-Saharan millennials shows the age set in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania prefer agriculture, while those in West Africa’s Nigeria and Ghana seek ICT as a side hustle. In South Africa, they opt for food and beverages businesses.

With the ongoing restructuring of commercial banks, more millennials are inclined to seek capital from banks and are shunning savings cooperatives which they deem “old and boring”.

“Despite the known high interest rates charged by most commercial banks, young millennials in SSA still prefer borrowing from commercial banks at 30 per cent before looking at other available options,” stated the report.

The findings show there are knowledge gaps among African millennials on effective saving plans, wise investments and financial management.

However, most millennials would like to better understand asset financing, entrepreneurship and investment opportunities available in their countries.

However, there is need to deal with lack of access to financing through organized groups which pool funds for collective acquisition of agricultural technologies and assets. Financing from the mainstream financial institutions should also be enhanced due to the reduced lending risk when working as a group, compared to when operating in isolation. Other innovative avenues include joint ventures where employed youths in urban areas partner with their friends in farming to create sustainable agribusiness ventures.