Compliments of the season.
 
The calendar of 2020 has been summarised in few words: January, February, lockdown, #EndSARS and December. 2020 is indeed a special year. We hope you and your family are keeping safe these holidays.
 
In our last issue of Knowledge@Danne for this year, we look at the young, next generation Nigerians and how they use the internet to voice and amplify their dissatisfaction with the Nigerian state. We also highlight the top sectors for potential growth that can employ them in their millions and how government policies to make high employment a reality need to be re-evaluated and prioritised. You can read the previous issues of Knowledge@Danne here.

The World Bank has identified services and manufacturing sectors - specifically light manufacturing, construction, ICT, wholesale/retail, meat and poultry, oil palm, and cocoa - as the top sectors with growth potential and massive employment opportunities for young Nigerians.
 
In this article, we look at how what determines the success of government’s job-creation policies is the right mind-set and approach, rather than just the political will. We warn about the dangers of policies inconsistent with this human capital development goal such as the border closure, which sought to punish our neighbours rather than pull our people out of poverty. We also explain why government is better off spending its limited resources plugging the nation’s infrastructure deficit while it attracts private and foreign investment into these sectors to scale growth.

Only 14.7 million out of the 40 million youth population are employed according to National Bureau of Statistics. The World Bank projects that some 66 million people will join the labour force by 2030 and government needs to produce 2 million jobs annually to get them busy. We at Danne believe that for us to make this bulge a dividend, government should make employment a top priority and explore all the synergy and partnerships it can get. Read full article here.

Young Nigerians are dissatisfied with the government. Most of them didn’t grow up in a Nigeria of free education and oil booms. Most of them are jobless and the students among them have, characteristically, been out of school for most of this year. The dissatisfaction is only natural.
 
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said that about 122 million Nigerians have access to the internet and a research by NOI Polls revealed that 70 per cent of them are young, between 18 and 35 years.
 

It is natural that they voice out their concerns, latest of which is #EndSARS, on a platform where they have so much presence and where they are less likely to be policed or restricted. Little wonder 29% of posts by the 1.96 million Nigerians on Twitter is on advocacy, according to a research by NOI Polls. Who are these youth? What is their digital lifestyle? What does the future hold for them and the country? Read the full article to find out.