Junior Achievement Nigeria has urged youths to move from being beneficiaries of aid to become builders of businesses. The call comes as youth unemployment remains a structural challenge for Nigeria’s economy.
Speaking at the KEFFESO-hosted Community Development Trust stakeholders’ meeting held recently in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Olaolu Akogun, acting executive director of Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN), emphasized the future of sustainable development lies not in doing more for young people, but in having them as contributors to a system being built.
Referencing Nigeria’s demographic realities, he noted that with over 60 percent of the population under 25 and a median age of 18, young people remain central to shaping the country’s future and should no longer be treated as passive recipients within development conversations.
Akogun explained that meaningful impact requires a shift from inclusion to co-creation, where young people are actively engaged in identifying challenges, designing solutions, and implementing ideas that directly affect their communities.
He added that adopting human-centered design approaches ensures interventions are more relevant, scalable, and responsive to real societal needs.
The acting executive director highlighted that while many youth-focused initiatives emphasize technical and vocational skills, there remains a critical gap in entrepreneurial thinking, financial literacy, and market understanding.
According to him, these competencies are essential for helping young people build sustainable ventures and achieve long-term economic resilience.
He noted that at JA Nigeria, this approach is implemented through experiential learning models such as the Company Program, where students gain practical exposure by building and managing real enterprises.
Through these experiences, participants develop skills in product development, marketing, project management, financial management, and leadership while learning directly from market realities.
He stressed the importance of helping young people view challenges as opportunities for innovation and enterprise creation by providing a practical framework for problem-solving.
Structured platforms such as ideathons, he explained, provide safe spaces for participants to identify community problems, develop practical solutions, and pitch ideas capable of attracting support or investment.
He added that by emphasizing that Nigeria’s economic future will depend not only on investments made in young people but on how effectively they are empowered to build, lead, and contribute meaningfully to economic growth and community development.
He noted that youth empowerment must now be viewed not just as a social responsibility, but as an economic imperative.
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