According to Risevest’s newly released 2025 Cost of Living Report, 73% of Nigerians earn below ₦500,000 monthly, while similar income pressures persist across Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda.

The survey, which gathered over 19,800 responses across 12 countries, paints a picture of a continent no longer reacting to crisis, but actively redesigning financial behaviour.

From cutting non-essential spending to prioritising dollar-denominated investments, Africans are choosing discipline over panic.

“In every percentage, there is a real person making sense of change,” said Eneyi Obi, chief marketing officer at Risevest. “This year’s report shows Africans are not just reacting to the cost of living; they are redefining what financial resilience looks like.”

While headline inflation numbers have improved in key markets, everyday expenses, food, rent, transport, education, continue to absorb a large share of household income.

The report finds that income inequality remains deeply entrenched, with median earnings significantly lower than averages across all surveyed countries.

Yet, optimism is not absent. The report highlights a rise in intentional money habits, increased interest in alternative income streams, and a growing appetite for long-term investments that protect against inflation.

“The story is not just how much life costs,” Obi added, “but how people are adapting with creativity and quiet strength.”

68% of Young Africans Cut Non-Essentials

For Gen Zs and millennials across Africa, the cost of living crisis has become a crash course in financial discipline.

The Risevest’s 2025 report indicates that a majority of young earners now prioritise essentials, track expenses more closely, and delay lifestyle upgrades.

In Nigeria alone, over 25% of respondents earn between ₦200,000 and ₦499,999, a group described as the “planning class”, freelancers, tech workers, and young professionals who budget carefully and increasingly save in foreign currencies.

Across Kenya and Ghana, similar patterns emerge. 68.88% of Kenyan respondents earn below KES 50,000, while 83.65% of Ghanaians earn below GHS 50,000, pushing young people to explore side hustles, remote work, and digital investments.

“This generation is more intentional than ever,” said Eneyi Obi. “They’re not just trying to survive inflation; they’re learning how to build stability with the tools available to them.”

The report notes that for many young Africans, wealth creation is no longer about luxury, it’s about security, flexibility, and future-proofing income.

The latest research report by narrative-change organization Africa No Filter investigates how young Africans experience their diaspora, how they define being African and the basis of their belonging.

It also looked into how they negotiate relationships with other Africans and how the prevailing stereotypical narratives about Africa impact perceptions about the continent among diasporic youth.

The report found that while life in the diaspora is marked by various types of discrimination, diasporic African youth have a unique double heritage that makes them proud of African languages, food, music, and history, while also strongly relating to the language and culture of their host country.

Their perception of Africa was also not overly influenced by the many negative narratives about the continent in mainstream media.

Instead, they relied on interpersonal relations and social media, and sometimes travel to the continent, to access knowledge about being African.

Furthermore, experiences of discrimination and recent racial reckonings in the host countries were also driving an increased interest in Africa.

Moky Makura, Executive Director at Africa No Filter, said: “This report is a must-read for African governments and host countries in the diaspora because it focuses on an under-researched group. The unique, first-hand accounts of life in the diaspora are an opportunity for African governments and host countries to think about how to turn young Africans in the diaspora into an economic, social and cultural asset for their host and home countries.”

The report was authored by academics Lusike Mukhongo, Winston Mano and Wallace Chuma. Here are the key findings:

• Young diasporans experience different types of discrimination in France, the UK and the US, the result is the same: a sense that they do not fully belong in the country where they live. They retreat to their African identity but see it as something to be proud of, nourished, preserved, and developed through visits and historical reimagination.

• The ability to speak an African language was the most highly regarded marker of identity for young diasporans – even those who did not speak an African language wished that they could.

• Recent waves of racial reckoning in the US, UK, and France, and the #BlackLivesMatter campaigns have led to young diasporans learning more about their heritage and identity. They have, especially, turned to learning about African history, wearing African clothing and hairstyles, and using African names. Participants’ African identity was also reinforced at home by speaking and hearing African languages, eating African food, and listening to African music.

• Young diasporans experience poor treatment in their host countries, are often marginalized and do not have equal access to government services and resources, compared to other racial groups. However, the nature of the treatment varies across countries: in the UK, Black people have similar experiences of microaggressions, whether they are Black British, Africans, African Americans, Caribbeans or Afro Latinos; in France, diasporans experience exoticization; and in the US, they live in fear due to police and other racial violence in the country.

• Diasporic youth typically have limited knowledge of Africa but a strong thirst for knowledge, and thus seek information about the continent from a wide range of sources including parents, relatives living in Africa and the diaspora, books, and social media. Those participants who had traveled to the continent believed they had greater knowledge than those who had only lived in the diaspora or moved to the diaspora at a young age, especially with respect to understanding the many diverse cultures across the continent.

• Across the three countries, participants considered global news coverage of Africa to be biased, based on stereotypes, and mostly negative – focused on poverty and political violence – but their views about Africa, and their identity as Africans were not overly shaped by these stories because they were aware of the slant. For example, in the UK, most participants accessed news through BBC, ITV and Sky News, which they believed routinely misrepresented Africa. So, even though the participants paid attention to mainstream portrayals of Africa, they were not easily swayed by them. Nevertheless, they were concerned about the impact of such negative narratives on non-Africans.

• Even positive stories about Africa are perceived to be mainly about individuals, for example, stories about African students winning competitions abroad; successful African inventors; African businessmen and women making money; and a Kenyan woman who takes plastic rubbish and waste and turns it into bricks for housing. This focus on individuals maintains a negative framing of Africa, allowing just a few pockets of positivity.

Africa has the world’s youngest population, with 70% of people in sub-Saharan Africa under 30. Empowering the youth is vital for the continent’s growth and potential and is crucial for economic growth, innovation, peace, and security.

These young people face challenges including education, underemployment, lack of opportunities, lack of information access, and gender inequality.

The British Council’s new Sub-Saharan Africa Strategy 2025 empowers youth in Africa through the opportunities for enablement and growth that the organisation offers to young people. This aims to help them nurture their communities and improve prospects.

The next generation is essential to the continent’s development and to global shared interests in creating a safer, healthier, and more prosperous future for us all.

In contrast to ageing populations in other regions, sub-Saharan Africa’s youth represent opportunities for innovation and economic growth. The youth are key to implementing the 2030 Agenda and its role in enhancing youth development efforts, and various Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

SDG 4 emphasizes quality education and SDG 8 addresses decent work and economic growth for youth.

We are building connections between people in the UK and sub-Saharan Africa through education and culture and opening doors for young people to fulfil their potential.

Our sub-Saharan Africa strategy, refreshed to take account of changes in the social, political, and economic landscape, will help achieve exactly those connections and opportunities for young Africans.

Truly fulfilling one’s potential requires access to education and networks of support, and we aim to provide that access and those networks of contacts, vital for the exchange of knowledge, information, and ideas.

A society where young Africans can thrive

We are engaging with young people and communities to help the next generation unlock their potential, build resilience, and create stronger community networks to realise a free, fair, more prosperous, and open society where young people can thrive.

This entails creating opportunity and engagement through arts, education, and the English language, and developing connections and mutually beneficial partnerships in Africa and the UK.

The British Council is contributing to the progress of this society as follows:

• building on our existing networks and deep on-the-ground engagement
• continuing to develop a strong understanding of our primary audience.
• through our programmes engendering greater inclusion and social cohesion in African societies
• contributing to economic empowerment, innovation, and employability in Africa
• enabling connections, exchange and opportunities between Africa and the UK to create strong and enduring networks with future leaders and influencers.

Our work in sub-Saharan Africa is focused on building human and social capital to help countries have a more prosperous and peaceful future. By creating opportunities and positive pathways for individuals, organisations, and systems, it becomes possible to improve young people’s prospects through the acquisition of knowledge, skills and ideas, and nurturing creativity, innovation, and connection.

To this end, we have developed a framework adapted from the Department for International Development (DFID) sustainable livelihoods model.

It sets out how people draw on different assets and operate within a context shaped by different factors. These assets include human capital (education, knowledge, skills, capacity), financial capital (economic assets, development, empowerment), social capital (relations of trust and support, collective representation, common rules, participation in decision-making, leadership networks and connections), physical capital (infrastructure, tools, technology, and Natural capital (water, land, biodiversity).

Applied to sub-Saharan Africa, we will see our diverse and wide-ranging areas of work come together into a strategic framework of intervention that will contribute to our overarching goal and intended outcomes.

As the UK’s cultural relations entity overseas, we occupy a unique space. We are using our expertise to connect with diverse communities and help them navigate their changing environments through mutually beneficial partnerships.

With challenging times ahead and the need to engage the next generation, we can use our relationships to build understanding.

Remaining relevant and connected is especially important given the complex past relationships between the UK and several countries in sub-Saharan Africa. We have an opportunity to use our relationships to win hearts and minds.

The refreshed Sub-Saharan Africa Strategy 2025 lays out our vision and purpose in a region where the operating context has shifted considerably over the last two to three years. Many countries are experiencing profound socio-political changes that have significant and far-reaching effects beyond borders.

A revised strategy was crucial as the world faces new and unprecedented challenges. Our goal is to foster peaceful and prosperous societies.

This new strategy crystallises our role as a valued and effective partner in sub-Saharan Africa today to help overcome the challenges of tomorrow.

We will engage with the UK government to stay aligned with policy priorities and be an integral, on-the-ground component in the whole-of-government approach.

By supporting African-led priorities with British expertise, we can provide more life-changing opportunities. These include more jobs and greater stability, including for women and girls, in the UK and across Africa.

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