Nigeria needs to harness the potential of its burgeoning youth population in order to bolster the economy and reduce widespread poverty. Years of economic mismanagement, flawed and inconsistent public policies by successive administrations, coupled with neglect of the agricultural sector, rural-urban migration, and a slow business environment have driven the economy to the precipice. There is also a lack of new and vibrant industries to absorb competent graduates and skilled labour. This obstacle was partly caused by an infrastructural deficit and a debilitating Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) implemented by Nigeria in the 1980s, which led to the closure of many industries and from which the country is yet to fully recover.
Indeed, Nigeria is full of promises and young people are its most valuable asset not crude oil, Africa’s biggest economy boasts of entrepreneurs, innovators, farmers, students and scholars, athletes, entertainers and future leaders that are eager to transform and change the narrative. The current administration is convinced that one of the fastest ways to pull the country out of this plunge is by empowering Nigerians, especially the women and youths.
Buhari-Osinbajo’s government says it is committed to laying the foundation that will raise 100 million Nigerians out of poverty over the next ten years; with financial inclusion programmes tailored to meet needs of specific regions and demographics nationwide. According to the President ‘This outcome will fundamentally shift Nigeria’s trajectory and place us among the World’s Great Nations.” The National Social Investments Programme (NSIP) targets the poor and vulnerable members of the population by tackling and addressing the root causes of poverty at all levels of households that exists in the country. Over the last four years, the initiatives have positively impacted 40 million Nigerians, directly and indirectly.
The government isn’t slowing down its efforts any time soon, it sees the endemic consequences of what a poverty capital title can turn out to be, so it is taking a big bet on its future – the youths. Unlike previous administrations, a lot of result oriented schemes and policies have been put in place to bridge this gap. The expected outcomes aren’t visibly glaring for now, however, this impending youth explosion in Nigeria presents a great opportunity for economic development. It could improve productivity and engender innovation and that’s what its present government is banking on.
Entrepreneurship is a key player in ending poverty by reversing the cycle of dependency with a cycle of self-sufficiency and employment. Thus, the consensus of opinion of experts is that the surest way to guarantee jobs, boost the economy, create wealth and escape from poverty is by creating an enabling environment for establishing new and scalable businesses. In the World Bank’s 2020 ease of doing business index, Nigeria moved up 15 places from its 2019 spot, a testament of the efforts of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC).
But Nigeria still needs more significant Investments in education, health, and job creation. Sectors such as ICT, sports, entertainment, hospitality and agriculture possess the potential to provide massive economic opportunities for young people; infrastructural development, provision of credit facilities and removal of institutional and regulatory constraints and other factors that could enhance entrepreneurship are crucial. Buhari’s administration has taken proactive measures to set up a new ministry of humanitarian, disaster management and social development that affects people directly. It believes increasing financial access and opportunities for these groups in rural communities especially, and advancing technological innovation is key to creating wealth. One of the government’s tactics may be to dole out money to women, traders and farmers but for youths, it is taking a completely different approach.
Government initiatives are investing more than money, they’re helping them dream bigger and set up themselves for employment or starting their own businesses. There are various programmes reaching different individuals and market needs of these young people.
There’s N-Power, a job creation and empowerment initiative of the Social Investment Programme, designed to drastically reduce youth empowerment in Nigeria. The focus is to provide young graduates and non-graduates with the skills, tools and livelihood to enable them advance from empowerment to empowerment, entrepreneurship and innovation. N-Power is such a versatile project, it has other divisions in Agriculture, Health, Teach and Knowledge programmes and addresses the challenge of youth unemployment by providing a structure for large scale and relevant work skills acquisition and development, while linking its core and outcomes to fixing inadequate public services and stimulating the larger
economy. So far, they have deployed over 500,000 graduate trainees and pay a monthly stipend of N30,000 each.
The Presidential Youth Empowerment Scheme is a Public Private
Partnership (PPP) initiative designed to fight and reduce unemployment among Nigerian youth by creating at least 774,000 empowerment opportunities. The programme trains selected candidates in multiple vocations such as agriculture, Information technology, fashion, catering, technology acquisition and many other strategic vocations. Government
Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) MarketMoni scheme has also empowered 350,000 MSMEs across 36 states of the Federation. President Buhari’s administration has established 8 Innovation hubs to promote youth entrepreneurship and innovation, two ICT innovation Hubs in Abuja and Lagos.
The Bank of Industry has launched various creative, agricultural and manufacturing initiatives to help young business owners too. The federal
government has extended support to other organisations including Young Entrepreneurs of Nigeria (YEN), Youth Initiative for Sustainable Agriculture (YISA), Youth Entrepreneurship Support Programme (YES-P) and others.
The government is also unlocking private-sector partnerships through incentives and social impact bonds as well as boosting entrepreneurial ecosystems with grants and policies that will support whatever sizes of business. There’s still so much to be done but it’s great to see that the President and his deputy, regardless of the political climate, are determined to build frameworks that will enable a more robust economy, lead to the creations of millions of job and move as many Nigerians as possible from the bottom of the pyramid to middle class. If we get it right with the youth, the largest demography in our history, it means the future is a place with bigger and better opportunities for all Nigerians.
