African Development Bank Group and National Business Initiative Advance Green Skills and Jobs for South African Youth

The African Development Bank Group and the National Business Initiative (NBI) are deepening their partnership to ensure South Africa's investments in renewable energy and power infrastructure deliver more than electricity: they also equip young people with skills, widen opportunities for women, and open the green economy to local business.

At the Green Livelihoods Summit in Johannesburg on 13 October 2026, the NBI, the African Development Bank and other partners announced major progress on phase 1 of the Just Energy Transition Skilling for Employment Programme (JET SEP) and unveiled its key components, backed by a USD 1 million grant from the Bank through the Fund for African Private Sector Assistance (FAPA). Together, these key milestones and deliverables provide a framework to shift South Africa's green skills ecosystem from planning to large-scale implementation.

The primary deliverables include:

The JET ATLAS - Anticipating Talent, Labour and Skills - an interactive dashboard forecasting skills supply and demand across South Africa's municipalities;

A feasibility study for Skills Development Zones endorsed by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). The DHET will launch three SDZs in Nkangala (29 October), the Northern Cape (18 November) and the Eastern Cape (March 2027);

Two additional studies: Building an Inclusive and Responsive Skills Ecosystem for a Just Energy Transition; and Powering Futures 2.0: Two Years of Progress, Learning and Opportunity. Both studies will be formally launched at COP 31 in Antalya, Türkiye.

The NBI has been mandated by the Just Energy Transition Project Management Unit in the South African Presidency to marshal business support behind Chapter 9 (Skills) of the JET Implementation Plan, a mandate it delivers through JET SEP.

Opening the Summit, NBI CEO Shameela Soobramoney set out an ambition to enable 100,000 green jobs by 2030, calling for clearer signals from employers, better-aligned funding, more contracts for small businesses, and shared measures of progress.

"The Green Economy is not a future opportunity. It is already taking shape around us. Our responsibility now is to ensure that investment translates into real jobs, viable enterprises, and sustainable livelihoods for young people. This requires us to move beyond working in silos and commit to collective action, shared accountability and measurable outcomes," she said.

Co-hosted by the National Business Initiative (NBI) and the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention (PYEI), the Summit brought together high-level dignitaries from the South African Presidency and the Department of Higher Education and Training, alongside senior executives from the private sector. Attendees included Anders Pedersen, Chief Regional Power Systems Officer at the African Development Bank; Dr Nkosinathi Sishi, Director-General of the Department of Higher Education and Training; and Grace Nndwammbi, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Sasol, with representation from Mainstream Renewable Power.

Turning energy investment into employment

South Africa's energy transition offers real scope to transform its economy, but infrastructure investment does not automatically create jobs or inclusive growth. Connecting employment priorities, skills development and local enterprises takes deliberate effort.

The partnership is designed to accomplish this. The Bank Group builds a skills and employment dimension into every investment, particularly for women and youth. The NBI mobilises the private sector to create demand-led training, enterprise opportunities and jobs.

For example, in Mpumalanga, home to 80 per cent of the country's coal plants, investment in wind energy, climate-smart agriculture, and agro-processing, tourism and hospitality could diversify the economy and create livelihoods for communities most exposed to the transition.

"Energy infrastructure projects may not generate significant direct employment, beyond the jobs created during construction and installation. Their greater employment impact is likely to come indirectly, by providing reliable electricity to businesses, enabling small enterprises to grow, improve efficiency and increase production," said Pedersen.

Building the skills pipeline

JET SEP shows how development finance and organised business can work together. With an estimated 120,000 to 200,000 jobs needed in the country by 2030, aligning skills with labour-market demand will determine whether young people and affected workers can take up those opportunities.

JET ATLAS modelling shows solar driving demand until 2030 and wind thereafter, with construction labourers accounting for about 45% of demand from 2030 to 2040 and technicians 16%. Powering Futures 2.0 finds that the demand for green economy skills is real and sits mostly in familiar trades -- construction work, technicians, electricians and welders -- not new "green" occupations.

But the opportunity is not evenly distributed. As developers race to meet demand for clean power, the report identifies a bottleneck in technical skills and an urgent need to fast-track globally certified technicians, electrical artisans and grid engineers.

JET SEP's initial phase addresses these challenges through skills-demand forecasting, gap analysis, and Skills Development Zones that link training to enterprise development and local priorities.

The Summit points to a broader lesson for South Africa's development agenda: clean energy infrastructure is essential, but its value lies in what it unlocks for people, businesses and communities.

Read the original article on African Development Bank (AfDB).