The Minister of Youth Development, Comrade Ayodele Olawande, has called for increased investment in the health, education, skills and economic empowerment of young people, saying Africa’s youthful population can only translate into a development dividend when young people have the opportunities and support systems to participate productively in society.

Olawande, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr. Maryam Ismaila Keshinro, stated this at the Regional Youth Convening on Health and Development, organised by the Stand With A Girl (SWAG) Initiative held at the United Nations House, Abuja, where stakeholders from West and Central Africa examined policy pathways, regional solutions and co-investment for lasting adolescent and youth health gains.

Keshinro said youth development must be treated as a strategic investment rather than merely a social intervention, noting that a healthy, educated and economically empowered generation was critical to productivity, innovation and inclusive economic growth.

According to her, young people face challenges including mental health and psychosocial concerns, sexual and reproductive health issues, nutrition, substance use, HIV and other infections, gender-based violence and menstrual health.

“A productive generation cannot be built without a healthy generation,” Olawande said, urging governments to strengthen youth-responsive health services while linking education and skills development to entrepreneurship and decent employment.

She called for stronger regional cooperation, evidence sharing and youth participation in policy design, implementation, monitoring and accountability, stressing that young people should not remain mere beneficiaries of development programmes.

Earlier in her keynote address, the UNFPA Resident Representative in Nigeria, Ms Muriel Mafico, said West and Central Africa was home to about 170 million young people aged 10–24, representing roughly one-third of the region’s population, but warned that a youthful population would not automatically produce a demographic dividend.

She said systems were needed to identify promising youth-led innovations, rigorously test them, finance what works and move successful interventions from projects into public policy and national-scale programmes.

Mafico said the region continued to face overlapping challenges, including child marriage, female genital mutilation, adolescent pregnancy, gender-based violence and unequal access to health services.

“We should leave this convening with more than recommendations. For every promising solution, let us identify a policy home, an evidence pathway and an investment pathway,” she said.

The Executive Director of Stand With A Girl Initiative (SWAG), Margaret Bolaji-Adegbola, called for stronger collaboration and institutionalised accountability in addressing youth health and development challenges.

She warned that “the cost of fragmentation is paid by the people we serve,” urging stakeholders to strengthen systems, embrace innovative financing and ensure that youth-led innovations are aligned with existing structures.

Bolaji-Adegbola also urged young participants to be confident and authentic, saying their ideas deserved a place in important decision-making spaces.

NextGen@SWAG Academy Fellow, from Ghana, Rebecca Adengbono, said the NextGen Fellowship had demonstrated the value of giving young people opportunities to contribute to regional policy conversations.

“Because young people are not simply waiting to become the future. We are already shaping the present,” she said.

Adengbono, who disclosed that her trip to Abuja was her first international flight, said the fellowship had enabled young leaders from five African countries to connect, exchange ideas and develop solutions to adolescent health and development challenges.

The two-day convening brought together government officials, development partners, civil society organisations, academia and youth leaders from Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, The Gambia and Liberia.