· But risks embedding gender inequality without urgent action
· Africa to see 84m green jobs by 2050
Nigeria’s green transition could generate up to 10.5 million jobs by 2050 making it one of the largest employment opportunities in the country’s future economy, according to a new report by FSD Africa examining the employment potential of Africa’s green transition through to 2050.
In the same manner, the African continent will see up to 7.9 million green jobs across the continent by 2030, which will rise to 84 million jobs by 2050, the report said.
The African Green Transition is a framework to shift the continent’s development model toward sustainable, climate-resilient economic growth. Unlike in the Global North—which focuses primarily on decarbonisation—Africa’s transition is deeply tied to poverty eradication, energy access, and climate resilience.
The Nigerian green jobs will be up to 2.4 million by 2030 before rising to 10.5 million by 2050.
To wit, Nigeria’s green transition is anchored by the country’s Energy Transition and Investment Plan (ETP), which commits Nigeria to eradicating energy poverty and achieving net-zero emissions by 2060. The plan relies on a $1.9 trillion investment to decarbonize five key sectors: power, cooking, oil & gas, transport, and industry.
According to FSD Africa, vast majority of the jobs will be Vast majority expected to be in the informal sector, with 87 percent of the jobs projected to be in the informal sector where workers have few social protections and 91 percent of the workforce will be male, thereby embedding gender inequality.
The main drivers of the jobs in Nigeria are clean cooking, solar home systems, and electric mobility. However, a key challenge for the country is improving job quality and extending social protection within informal systems.
To help address the key barriers, FSD Africa is launching the “Green Jobs Innovation Hub”, aimed at mobilising finance and partnerships to scale workforce solutions across the continent.
The initiative will focus on unlocking new financing models to ensure that workforce development keeps pace with investment in green infrastructure.
The report, “Unlocking Africa’s Green Transition: Opportunities Towards a Green and Inclusive Workforce, was launched by FSD Africa, a financial sector development agency, in partnership with Shell Foundation, a philanthropic foundation working to raise incomes while lowering emissions, and Shortlist, a talent advisory firm working across Africa. Shell Foundation’s participation is funded by the UK Government via the Transforming Energy Access (TEA) platform.
High job creation, but major inclusion risks
The report shows that Nigeria’s green economy is already taking shape, with 1.2 million jobs projected by 2030, rising to 10.5 million by 2050. As in the rest of Africa, Nigeria’s green transition will be driven not by large infrastructure projects, but by decentralised, service-led industries, including: clean cooking, solar home systems, and electric mobility.
High growth sectors are labour-intensive and accessible, but heavily reliant on informal delivery systems raising concerns about wages, job quality, and inclusion. For instance, 73 percent are in nano-enterprises (single-
Richard Gomes, chief programme officer at Shell Foundation, said, “Africa’s green transition represents one of the most significant economic opportunities of our generation. However, this vision can only be realised if the green economy is designed to work for the lower-income and informal workers who power our society ― and in particular for the women. The prize here is not ‘more green jobs’. The prize is future-proofed jobs anchored in sectors that will continue to grow as the world navigates compounding climate, energy and economic disruption”.
Skills and finance key constraints for Nigeria
The report says that for Nigeria to realise the green transition potential, it requires a strategy that improves job quality within existing informal systems, closes the acute gender gap, and bridges a widening technical skills deficit. Key challenges include: limited access to market-relevant training, severe underinvestment in workforce systems, and lack of finance for small-scale businesses driving job creation.
A new policy approach needed
The report recommends: improving job quality within informal systems, rather than forcing formalisation, expanding access to finance for micro-enterprises, scaling practical, short-term skills training.
Kevin Munjal, director, development impact at FSD Africa, said, “Nigeria’s green workforce will be composed of millions of independent operators—such as SHS installers and battery-swapping station managers—rather than those on corporate payrolls. Both investment and policy need to reflect that reality”.
An Africa-wide opportunity
Nigeria is one of the main beneficiaries of an Africa-wide green jobs boom that is projected to see 3.8 million to 7.9 million jobs created across the continent by 2030, rising to between 65.9 and 84.5 million by 2050.
The report says the difference between high and low job scenarios is not inevitable, it is the result of policy choices. It highlights that currently; Africa lacks the workforce capacity needed to deliver the transition at scale.
It also observed that despite holding 60 percent of the world’s best solar resources, Africa’s renewable energy workforce accounts for just 2 percent of the global total; while only 6.5 percent of African youth have completed formal vocational training.
The report warns that, without urgent investment in training and workforce systems, projects will stall, rely on imported expertise, and fail to deliver local economic benefits. In particular, it highlights the need to increase investment in training and development with less than 1 percent of global climate finance currently directed toward skills development.
Key priorities for the continent include: redirecting finance toward high-employment sectors such as clean cooking, distributed solar, waste and e-mobility, investing in green skills systems, including modular training and recognition of informal skills, embedding workforce and inclusion targets into climate finance, extending social protection to informal workers, including through mobile platforms, and developing innovative financing mechanisms to unlock capital for skills development.
Paul Breloff, co-founder & CEO of Shortlist, said, “the right human capital is an important input for successful climate-positive growth, so we have to be sure Africa’s workforce is ready for what’s needed. But high-quality jobs are also an exciting benefit of the green transformation. Now we have an even better idea where these millions of jobs and livelihood opportunities will come from and what we can do to make sure the market is ready”.
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