Cotonou — At just 11 years old, with a heavy heart, Louis peered up at his parents and said goodbye. He was leaving his small village in northern Benin to live with his uncle in Parakou, where the schools were better. Ever since, Louis has continued to make sacrifices to pursue a strong education and a better life.
Now, at 23 years old, Louis finds himself with an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Benin's largest public university, speaking nearly perfect English, unable to find formalized employment. His response?
"Hustle," he says.
"I'm an entrepreneur," Louis said. "It won't be easy for me to create a startup, but I have to tell myself in my mind that I can do it even if it is hard. I will [do] whatever I can to make it possible."
Louis said he is currently launching a company providing computer programming services. He and his team hope to develop apps, create websites and solve technical problems for clients.
In Benin, college graduates struggle to find formalized work. Educated young people find themselves working odd jobs, creating their own companies or remaining entirely financially dependent on their parents.
Few in the country decide to pursue higher education at all. According to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, only 15% of men and 8% of women in Benin enroll in tertiary education.
Of those who do enroll, the percentage of students who complete their degree is even lower. In the 2022-2023 school year, 58,456 undergraduate students enrolled in the University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin's largest public university. That same academic year, only 6,614 received a diploma .
Christophe Aïnagnon, now an English student at the University of Abomey-Calavi, dropped out of the science department after two years because he recognized he would not be able to find a job with his degree.
Aïnagnon said he has many friends who drop out of college altogether because they do not think it is worth it to continue. Other friends of his have finished their degrees but cannot find work.
"They think that if they finish, they won't find a job, [so] they vanish," Aïnagnon said. "I even have many friends... they study, they work hard, they did everything to finish, but... they didn't happen to find a job. It's not that they didn't know how, but a lot of them are at home now doing nothing."
Aïnagnon, for his part, has launched his own business breeding rabbits to earn an income.
"It's the kind of business [through which] I can become who I want and live my best life," Aïnagnon said.
Last month, the Ichikowitz Family Foundation published a survey that found 60 percent of young Africans ages 18-24 want to emigrate in the next five years. The report surveyed 5,604 individuals and was conducted in 16 different countries.
Louis said it is his dream to immigrate to the United States and has applied for the visa lottery many times.
"That's why I'm motivated to speak English: to immigrate, to go to the U.S.A.," Louis said. "When I was a kid, I wanted to study at MIT."
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Others do not wish to emigrate, citing lack of connections abroad, the challenge of finding employment in a foreign country and the difficulty of the immigration process.
Mirabelle Awegnonde, an English student at the University of Abomey-Calavi, said she wants to be a teacher but has to start thinking of alternative self-employment options in case she cannot find a teaching job.
"It makes me afraid sometimes," Awegnonde said. "I'm afraid. I tell myself, how can I get a job in the future? How can I make myself a job instead? Because I'm a shy person, so... it is hard for me."
Note: Megan Fahrney is a Fulbright scholar currently living in Benin.
IPS UN Bureau Report
