Kole Shettima, Director of MacArthur’s Nigeria Office, shares a new initiative in Nigeria to empower young people to drive social and economic change.
I met Balkisu, a TikToker from the quiet town of Bauchi in Northeast Nigeria, during the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria movement in 2024. After high school, Balkisu could not attend college due to financial constraints. Coming from a large family with competing priorities, her parents could not afford the expense of higher education. Still, Balkisu considered herself fortunate: she had access to a smartphone and one meal a day—luxuries that many of her peers lacked. Balkisu’s story embodies the hopes and aspirations of our new grantmaking initiative: Nigeria Next.
Nigeria Next, created and led by our Abuja-based Staff, will invest in Nigeria’s young people, so they can drive social and economic change. We believe that with greater access to digital tools, spaces that catalyze their creativity, and amplification of their voices in civic spaces, young people can unleash their potential and move us towards a new Nigeria.
Nigeria Next represents a collaboration between MacArthur’s On Nigeria, Technology in the Public Interest, and Journalism and Media programs. Colleagues from these programs began convening discussions among themselves, grantee partners, and subject-matter experts in 2022.
Our New Work team—a group of Staff charged with developing new programs and initiatives for the Foundation—commissioned a paper to better understand the challenges and opportunities facing young people, and several Staff members traveled to Nigeria for consultative meetings.
Nigeria Next...will invest in Nigeria’s young people so they can drive social and economic change.
We reached out deliberately to communities across the hinterland and coastal cities, including Kafanchan, Enugu, Port Harcourt, Bauchi, Maiduguri, and the hubs of Abuja, Kano, and Lagos. Our intent was to listen to a broad range of voices.
Through these conversations, interconnected themes emerged related to young people, civic participation, technology, and media.
Empowering Young People to Shape Nigeria’s Future
Focusing on young people is essential: we are a young nation with 60 percent of the population under the age of 30, and 42 percent under 15 years old. While we recognize the challenges facing young people, we believe focusing solely on problems is not conducive to our goals, so we intentionally chose to view youth as assets.
As Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria is a dynamic center for innovation in finance, technology, agriculture, civic tech, and creative industries. The so-called “youthquake”—a term used by scholars and commentators—captures the profound impact of young Nigerians. From breakthroughs in Lagos’s tech scene to the global reach of Nollywood and Afrobeats, their ingenuity is unquestionable. Young people are also reimagining civic engagement, pioneering new forms of organizations and activism on issues such as clean energy, climate change, democracy, transparency, accountability, and sexual and gender-based violence.
By elevating our young people through greater inclusion, innovation, creativity, and civic participation, we hope to make a lasting contribution to Nigeria and its future.
Nigeria’s young people are digital natives, having grown up immersed in technology. Virtual communities have amplified voices like Balkisu’s, fueled mass protests, and created new avenues for participation.
The Balkisus of Nigeria represent the promise of this work: a disadvantaged, geographically isolated, digitally savvy young woman with limited access to technology due to cost and harm. Yet, technology enabled her voice to resonate in the civic space.
Nigeria Next is still in the early stages, but our Nigeria team is excited for the work ahead. By elevating our young people through greater inclusion, innovation, creativity, and civic participation, we hope to make a lasting contribution to Nigeria and its future.
