Engineers for Africa 2025 Report

Why engineering capacity matters in sub-Saharan Africa

Engineering capacity continues to be crucial to sustainable development. However, the potential for engineering to drive development across wide-ranging sectors from water and agriculture to infrastructure development, transport and healthcare, is only unlocked when working and graduating engineers meet the need in these sectors, both in number and experience.

Meeting this engineering capacity gap requires collaboration across industry, academia, government and professional bodies, and was the focus of a 2012 report produced by the Academy and Engineers Against Poverty.

The updated 2025 report reflects on the current landscape, relaying key conversations from across sub-Saharan Africa on the challenges, successes and current approaches to improve engineering capacity, with detailed recommendations for industry, academia, PEBs and policymakers.

These recommendations emphasize the importance of leveraging in-country expertise, scaling appropriate solutions and collaborating across stakeholder groups, sectors and regions.

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The Engineers for Africa 2025 report builds on the 2012 report to explore progress, challenges and next steps for supporting engineering capacity building.

The Engineers for Africa 2025 report explores:

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Why capacity development matters

Read more about the role of engineering in socioeconomic development, and the support needed to reach that potential. From technical education and non-traditional learning pathways to the transition to employment and crucial support for career progression, the report delves into the need for expertise across the engineering career journey.

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Engineering capacity in Africa today

Read about the status of engineering in sub-Saharan Africa, and the interconnected areas of interest that have far reaching implications for capacity and skills development, from industrialisation and climate change to urbanisation, digitalisation and artificial intelligence as pivotal.

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Crucial challenges to address

Explore the challenges to closing the engineering capacity gap, from funding and operational challenges to outdated curricula, the need for more mentorship and a mismatch between industry requirements and skills of recent graduates.

Success stories from a variety of sectors and countries

Reflect on initiatives both local and multinational that demonstrate success, including the integration of industry perspectives into curricula, professional training, and policy changes, and how these might be scaled, adapted, and institutionalised across sectors and regions.

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Recommendations reflected

Read individual and collaborative actionable insights. Tailored recommendations are collated individually for industry, higher education institutions, government, professional institutions, funders, regional bodies and non-African development organisations. Together, they form a common reference point for collaboration.

Who contributes to engineering capacity in sub-Saharan Africa?

Government

Policymakers are key to creating an enabling environment for engineering capacity to evolve in line with local needs and trends. Through procurement policy, development plans, incentives and standards, government can incentivise, facilitate and mandate local experience on large scale projects, incorporate skilling initiatives into existing plans, drive industry involvement in education and upskilling, and in general, ensure that policies and frameworks benefit the strength of local engineering ecosystems that drive development. The EFA report provides policymakers with a concise overview of common challenges identified by African industry, academia and professional engineering bodies, from which to approach the continued development and implementation of policies that support engineering capacity as a strategic investment in national development.

Professional Engineering Bodies (PEBs)

PEBs can develop standards to recognise skills developed outside of higher education, partner with the government and legislators to develop new policies for standardisation of accreditation and professional registration, and convene key actors in the engineering ecosystems nationally, regionally and in specific sectors. The EFA report serves as an additional tool for PEBs to further demonstrate the role of engineering in socioeconomic security and communicate established recommendations.

Industry

Industry is where recent graduates and working professionals gain experience and are exposed to new skills and technologies; where local talent interns and gains invaluable experience, where mentors are found, research projects relevant to industry needs are scoped, and input sourced to aligned curricula and professional training courses with current and future needs. The EFA report demonstrates the value of collaboration between industry and academia in building engineering capacity that benefits business and society.

Higher Education Institutions

While industry provides engineers with practical experience, their career journey begins with technical education, which is largely under-funded and isolated from practical opportunities that students need to acquire, and where there is a mismatch between skills and industry need. Academia holds the key to setting a standard for engineering education, and driving evidence-based initiatives.

Higher education institutions drive curricula review, initiate industry-relationships central to relevant teaching, lead on research efforts specific to industry-needs, and opportunities for international research collaborations that keep sectors competitive. The EFA report profiles further ways for Academia to enhance the relevance and impact of engineering education to produce graduates fit for industry, and to collaboration with PEBs, industry and government to support the profession.

Intergovernmental bodies and regional organisations

Intergovernmental bodies can play a crucial role in ensuring that continental frameworks, such as Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want, explicitly acknowledge and actively promote the continuous development of engineering capacity. The EFA report provides a comprehensive reference point for discussions on engineering capacity building in sub-Saharan Africa. It incorporates perspectives from industry, academia and professional bodies across the region to foster a shared understanding of challenges and ideas and serves as a common reference point for a multi-stakeholder approach to tackling the capacity gap on a regional scale.

Funders and development organisations

Both African and non-African funders and development organisations can enhance engineering capacity through institutionalised support for regional and international collaboration that addresses accreditation, graduate mobility, long-term planning and evidence-based initiatives. The EFA report identifies ways for funders, especially in large-scale infrastructure projects, to determine the level of local hiring practices, the diversity of tender evaluations, and the percentage of local expertise engaged at a senior level. It identifies opportunities to support regional and international accreditation, consolidate and showcase evidence of successful pilots, and advocates for long-term funding.

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Many career challenges disproportionately impact women.

Women in engineering

The EFA report underscores the critical need to bridge the gender gap in engineering, highlighting challenges like low career progression due to socio-cultural norms, biases, and harassment.

The report highlights initiatives to boost women's participation and career advancement by equipping them with essential skills and encouraging mentorship, and identifies meaningful actions for industry, academia and policymakers to take.

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Challenges along the career journey

Engineers in sub-Saharan Africa often experience barriers to progression or mobility throughout their careers, with less access to continuing professional development (CPD) than in other regions. National PEBs report a substantial loss of experience professionals, as they search for more opportunities elsewhere. Across the journey, these challenges disproportionately impact women.

Key challenges include:

“Engineering is more than just an applied science, it is also a vital tool for tackling global issues as well as a powerful lever for achieving the SDGs at the community, national, continental, and global levels.”

Engineer Mustafa B. Shehu, President, World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO)

“If the recommendations listed in the report are implemented, Africa will go very far in bridging the engineering capacity gap (…) bringing us close to achieving the SDGs by 2030.”

Engineer Mustafa B. Shehu, President, World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO)

Recommendations: Enabling a skilled engineering workforce

The Engineers for Africa 2025 report sets out actionable recommendations for continued progress for industry, academia, government, professional institutions, funders and regional bodies. Across all stakeholder groups, however, key recommendations require collaborative and coordinated efforts.

Strengthen industry-academia relationships to better align training with evolving industry needs.
Standardise education and registration requirements to boost mobility for African engineers, while broadening the pathways to achieve skill verification.
Incentivise the hiring and upskilling of local workers on major projects to help local engineers gain valuable hands-on experience.
Convene stakeholders to develop unified agendas for emerging jobs and priorities, including skill development strategies.
Launch and scale initiatives to increase women participation and progression in engineering.

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The Engineers for Africa report sets out recommendations for enabling a skilled engineering workforce.

Royal Academy of Engineering in Africa

Learn about Academy programmes launched in 2013 in response to the 2012 report, supporting initiatives that have been strengthening engineering capacity in sub-Saharan Africa over the last decade:

The Africa Catalyst programme supports professional engineering bodies to effectively promote the profession, share best practice, and increase local engineering capacity to help drive development.
The Higher Education Partnerships in sub-Saharan Africa programme supports the higher education system with in meeting the needs of industry to tackle local and global challenges, and improve graduate employability.
The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation is Africa’s biggest prize dedicated to engineering innovation, and awards commercialisation support to African innovators developing scalable engineering solutions to local challenges.

International programmes open to African awardees include Frontiers, Skills for Safety, Transforming Systems through Partnerships, Distinguished International Associates, the Global Talent Visa programme, the Leaders in Innovation Fellowships, Safer End of Engineered Life, and Safer Complex Systems.

Acknowledgements

The Academy would like to thank the following individuals and organisations for their contributions to this report.

Dalberg
Engineers Against Poverty
Dr Allyson Lawless FREng
Dr Dorothy Okello
Professor Washington Ochieng CBE EBS FREng
President Eng. Mustafa B. Shehu, WFEO
Immediate Past President Eng. Papias Kazawadi, FAEO
President Eng. Refilwe Buthelezi, FAEO
And all interviewees

With recognition for:

The literature review conducted by Engineers Without Borders
The stakeholder survey conducted by Sagaci Research
Photographers Kit Oates, Brett Eloff, James Oatway, and GGImages photographers as credited in the publication.