This post was originally published by Good Authority.
Two years ago, Kenya’s Gen Z protesters forced the government to withdraw a controversial tax bill. Kenyans’ underlying economic grievances have not been resolved – and anniversary demonstrations in June 2026 showed the movement is far from spent. The pattern is not unique to Kenya. From Tanzania to Morocco to Nigeria, youth-led uprisings in recent years have defined African politics, fuelled by a common thread: The cost of living is crushing ordinary people, and governments are not doing enough to help.
John Chinedu, a small-business owner in Ikeja, Nigeria, described the many challenges: “Every day is calculation. Transport cost goes up, goods price goes up, but customers don’t have more money. You have to survive inside the problem.”
Afrobarometer surveys across 38 countries put numbers to the anger in the streets, and the frustrations in the markets.
The view from the ground
The economic headlines for Africa look decent. The continent is the world’s second-fastest-growing region. Nine of the 20 fastest-growing economies in 2024 were in Africa, and inflation has decelerated in many countries. But when analysts speak of recovery, most Africans aren’t feeling it.
Findings from 50,961 face-to-face interviews in 2024/2025 reveal a striking disconnect between reported macroeconomic indicators and people’s lived experience. Six in 10 Africans (59%) describe their country’s economic condition as “fairly bad” or “very bad” (see Figure 1), an assessment shared by 88% in Nigeria and 79% in Ghana – two countries where youth protests have been particularly intense. About half of Africans say the same of their personal living conditions (49%) and see things as getting worse, not better (51%).
Figure 1: Economic outlook among survey respondents | 38 countries | 2024/2025
Respondents were asked: In general, how would you describe the present economic condition of this country?
Three numbers that explain the frustration
- 35% of working-age adults (18-65 years old) say they are unemployed and looking for jobs, including majorities in Mozambique (61%), Angola (56%), Botswana (55%), and Lesotho (55%) – see Figure 2. Among youth (aged 18-35), the average rises to 43%.
- 85% of citizens rate their government’s performance on keeping prices stable as “fairly bad” or “very bad.” Price instability is the worst-rated area of government performance. In Nigeria, where annual inflation rose from 13.2% in 2020 to 32.4% in 2024, disapproval is nearly unanimous (97%).
- 47% of all respondents say they had to ask family members for help in the past year to make ends meet. One in three (33%) turned to friends or neighbors.
Figure 2: People who are not working, looking for a job | respondents aged 18-65 | 38 countries | 2024/2025
Respondents were asked: Do you have a job that pays a cash income? [If “no”: Are you currently looking for a job?] (Figure 2 shows percentage who say they don’t have a job and are looking for one. Analysis includes only respondents aged 18-65.)
The gap between headlines and lives
Africa’s macro-level growth statistics obscure a distribution problem. As research on the continent’s inflation cycle has shown, food prices – which account for about 40% of household spending in sub-Saharan Africa, compared to just 16% in advanced economies – have risen disproportionately, hitting poor households the hardest. A majority (58%) of Afrobarometer respondents say family members went without enough food at least once during the previous year.
These findings suggest that what recent protests are really about is a political economy that generates growth but fails to distribute the benefits of this growth more widely. Many Africans may be questioning the value of improving GDP figures while 145 million working Africans remain in extreme poverty.
The politics of economic disappointment
Not all Africans have given up hope: Half (49%) say they expect economic conditions to improve over the next 12 months. At the same time, most see their country as heading “in the wrong direction” (58%) and their government as failing to deliver on economic priorities: keeping prices stable (82%), narrowing gaps between rich and poor (79%), creating jobs (76%), improving living standards of the poor (73%), and managing the economy (64%) – see Figure 3.
These assessments have been consistently negative for the past decade, dipping further during the covid-19 pandemic before recovering to pre-pandemic levels of still-massive disapproval.
On all of these issues, the poorest respondents register the highest levels of disapproval of their government’s performance – 11 to 19 percentage points higher than economically well-off citizens.
Figure 3: Government’s economic performance | 38 countries | 2024/2025
Respondents were asked: How well or badly would you say the current government is handling the following matters, or haven’t you heard enough to say?
What the people want
Economic issues rank high on citizens’ agenda for government action: Unemployment and the increasing cost of living trail only health among the “most important problems” they want their governments to address (see Figure 4). Poverty, management of the economy, and incomes also feature on the priority list.
Figure 4: Economic issues as most important problems | 38 countries | 2024/2025
Respondents were asked: In your opinion, what are the most important problems facing this country that government should address? (Up to three responses per respondent; Figure 4 shows percentage of respondents who cite each problem as one of the three priorities.)
Africa’s recent protest wave did not end when governments agreed to withdraw specific bills. The structural conditions driving that wave – youth unemployment, inflation, threadbare safety nets, and governments perceived as unresponsive – remain largely unchanged.
Macro recovery is important, but not sufficient to ensure greater economic stability and well-being across Africa. For most Africans, the economy recovers when they recover. The numbers suggest that moment has not yet arrived.
Maakwe Cumanzala (@Maakwe_) is a PhD candidate in the Neubauer Family Program in Economics and Public Policy at Tufts University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Anyway Chingwete (@achingwete) is Afrobarometer’s deputy director of surveys.
Karen Kaunda (@KarenKaunda1320) is an Afrobarometer research assistant.