I shall refrain from my usual cliche, that the economy is growing. Looking at an image from the economy, the statistics are there, and they are grim, like the reaper. In Africa, urbanisation has been increasing, especially in places like Nigeria and cameroon, but not so much in Kenya. In Asia, when people moved into cities in the 80s, incomes went up. But this is Africa, rules do not matter, including this one too. In Liberia, urbanisation went up while incomes dropped steeply.

In Africa, we also have a huge teenage problem population ,  which someone says should explain for Africa’s adolescent economies and politics. There’s also a smaller, but quite significant population in the early 20s, below that age of 25. A small number of these people are graduating from college, but many of them are getting into employment.

Again, it is in Africa where jobs are cursed - some bear the curse of  the elusive job, while others bear the curse of the job.

The curse of the job sees these young people getting what are high paying jobs - high paying compared to adult income in their extended family, but what may not be something to blow one’s horn about.

A friend recently highlighted the problem faced by these young people who get jobs. Strangely enough, another of my friends with a promising career at a local bank highlighted the same issue, separately. Apparently, financial advisors are aware of the African curse of the newly employed and shared the same to her and her fellow employees.

A young African gets a job. It has been reported that a good number ask for quite huge salaries, KES 200,000 straight from college. It takes a while for them to realise that USD 2000 salaries are usually reserved for regional directors, and not in your everyday firm. For those that make their first paycheck, their dreams of driving big cars are soon off to a rocky start.

First, they realise that rent in urban areas can be quite steep, and can account for almost half their salaries. Then there is the cost of what we pretend to be transport in cities such as Nairobi.

But those are not even the biggest headaches of young income earners, but rather, their extended family is. The young income earners soon find themselves in an unfamiliar role, far beyond that of breadwinners, and one almost close to the herculean task where Jesus of Nazareth had to multiply loaves of bread.

With a new job, they are required to provide shoes for their father who sired them, “buy sugar” for their mothers who brought them up, buy their siblings stuff, and pay their school fee. Beyond that, there’s an aunt who reminds the income earner that they once played played nanny, an important role without which the income earner wouldn't have gotten to their point. An uncle will find the young income earner disrespectful for having “forgotten him”. Then there are cousins and old friends who will also be begging the income earner to “remember them.”

With a job, which held all hopes for the young African, comes an even heavier, unfamiliar burden.

With such a dilemma, what are the options for the income earner? Should they ignore these requests as they build their savings and purchase assets, or should they sacrifice savings and assets to build their community?

Is there enough money to go around and cater for everyone, or is it so little that it ends up achieving nothing? Would it have achieved something if it didn't have to be shared out, or only had to be shared out between two individuals?