Experts in youth development, business and public policy have challenged state governors to harness local resources and economic opportunities to create jobs for young people, stressing that skills acquisition programmes must be linked to industry needs, market demand and practical employment opportunities.

The stakeholders made the call at the Productive Youth Network (PYN) Future of Work Summit 3.0 in Abuja, themed, “Nigeria of Possibilities: Building State-Driven, Future-Ready Workforce Systems.”

Speaking during a panel session, former Secretary to the Adamawa State Government, Umar Bindir, said Nigeria’s persistent development challenges, including poverty, poor access to healthcare and the growing number of out-of-school children, required effective leadership, reliable data and innovative solutions.

He noted that Nigeria had expanded its university system from about five to seven institutions at independence to over 300, but the country was still struggling to translate its educational expansion into solutions to pressing social and economic problems.

“We have a structure to develop the critical mass of skilful young people to solve these problems. But the problem is still there,” Bindir said.

He stressed the importance of data in governance, arguing that state governments could not effectively address social challenges without accurate information about the needs of their populations.

“Data drives everything. Whoever becomes a leader must know, how many primary schools do I have? How many children do I have? How many teachers do I need? How many books do I need? How many hospitals do I have? How many people who need healthcare? This data has to be there,” he said.

Bindir lamented that quality data collection remained inadequate at the subnational level, urging governments to improve their capacity to gather and use reliable information for planning.

He challenged young people to look beyond the pursuit of government employment and develop the skills and professional networks needed to build sustainable careers.

“Make sure you develop the network so that you can develop a career. There are enough jobs for you. But don’t think that government will just hire you,” he said.

Using the challenge of out-of-school children, particularly Almajiri pupils, as an example, Bindir urged young entrepreneurs to see social problems as opportunities to develop innovative products and services.

President and Chairman of Council of the Chartered Institute of Forensics and Certified Fraud Examiners of Nigeria, Dr Iliyasu Gashinbaki, identified agriculture as a sector with the capacity to create employment for people with different levels of education and technical expertise.

Gashinbaki highlighted mechanisation as another avenue for creating jobs, disclosing that his company had repaired more than 2,000 trucks over five years.

He said the company’s equipment recovery operations also provided opportunities to train engineers, technicians and mechanics, adding that further interventions were planned in Katsina, Kebbi, Plateau and Jigawa states.

The industrialist also offered to collaborate with the youth network to connect participants to technical training, while proposing partnerships to support women and young people through his cooperative and financial advisory centre.

Technical Adviser to the Vice President on Women, Youth Engagement and Impact, Hauwa Liman, said inadequate confidence, exclusion from policymaking and cultural barriers continued to limit the participation of young people and women in the economy.

She argued that empowerment programmes would be more effective if governments and development organisations involved intended beneficiaries in identifying their needs and designing interventions.

She explained that economic empowerment programmes needed to reflect differences in social, economic and cultural conditions across states, particularly when addressing barriers confronting women in rural communities.

According to her, policies that might work in one location could fail elsewhere if the specific circumstances of beneficiaries were ignored.

Speaking, Head of Youth and Women Banking Products and Customer Services at First Bank, Sandra Maduabuchi, said entrepreneurs needed more than promising ideas to build sustainable businesses, stressing that products and services must respond to genuine market demand.

She cautioned against assuming that Nigeria’s large population automatically represented a viable market for every business idea.

“Out of the 200 million, how many people are able to pay for the value you’re creating? How many people are willing to pay for?” she asked.

Maduabuchi said state governments should identify local needs and create market demand and incentives for enterprises capable of addressing them, while investors, incubators and corporate organisations provided financing, technical assistance and access to customers.

Founder of the Productive Youth Network, Engr. Mohammed Onotu, said Nigeria’s diverse economic landscape made it necessary for individual states to identify and develop their unique strengths.

“Every state has its own uniqueness,” Onotu said, arguing that state-specific strategies and collaboration among stakeholders could help maximise local resources and expand economic opportunities.

He explained that the summit brought together participants from different sectors and states to identify areas of strength, explore opportunities for collaboration and develop practical solutions to workforce challenges.

Onotu added that the network intended to extend the initiative to states across the country through partnerships with organisations familiar with local conditions.