EU-Nigeria Business Forum seeks to grow youth productivity

The Sixth EU-Nigeria Business Forum, which ended Oct. 6 has continued in the tradition of five previous editions to strengthen the strategic partnership between Nigeria and the European Union amid an increasing youthful population and growing unemployment rate.

This year’s theme, ‘Youth as Engine of Broad-Based Economic Transformation’ was designed to draw attention to the role youth would have to play in widening, deepening and sustaining an inclusive economic growth. The right business environment and regulatory framework would allow youth and Information Communication Technology (ICT) to unlock all the potentials of Digital Economy, the Forum suggested.

“Nigeria’s youth have similar dreams as youth in Europe, which is to be better off than the generation before. The difference lies in the role environment plays in the attainment of this desirable goal. To improve the lot of youth in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy will have to create an average of 8 million jobs annually” said Ketil Karlsen, European Union ambassador to Nigeria and to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) at the EU-Nigeria Business Forum.

Data presented by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that over 26 million Nigerian youth are unemployed or underemployed. This is impacting business organisations negatively. An average of 1.8 million youth enter the job market annually, most of them graduates of tertiary institutions of education who are not likely to secure appropriate jobs. This is compounded by a population growth rate of 2.6 percent, according data from the World Bank.

Social analysts have described Nigeria’s youthful population as restless, innovative and good tech entrepreneurs and point to the veritable role ICT plays in growing the economic pie and creating jobs, sometimes out of thin air.

Activities at the Yaba Tech-Hub, Lagos Mainland, show that ICT is a critical enabler that supports Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth across horizontal sectors of the economy, such as manufacturing, education, agriculture, healthcare, services, and governance among others. According to the NBS, ICT accounted for 8.3 percent of GDP in 2016 and Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) seeks to promote the ICT sector by supporting technology development.

Big names like Konga, an online retailer, arrived at Yaba in 2013, while Africa Internet Group transferred six of its companies to Yaba in 2014. In the late 1990s, Bosun Tijani was recruiting European developers for tech businesses owned by returnees in Jos and Abuja. More than a decade later, he teamed up with partner Femi Longe to create Co-Creation Hub (CC Hub) Nigeria, the country’s first technology hub and incubation space, in Yaba in 2011.

“Globally ICT has become a veritable tool for advancing growth and economic development especially in countries endowed with natural resources. ICT has changed the way people communicate, learn, and conduct businesses. A World Bank econometric study carried out in 2009 showed that every 10 percent increase in ICT investment generates a 1.38 percent increase in GDP. The Nigerian ICT sector today is one of the fastest growing despite the economic recession that Nigeria is crawling out of” said Adebayo Shittu, minister of communications at the EU-Nigeria Business Forum in Lagos.

STEPHEN ONYEKWELU