According to Nenadi Esther Usman, governments and policy makers must come together to ensure Nigerian youth is able to engage in entrepreneurial activities. Once elected, she will do all she can to motivate and encourage young people to start enterprises, think outside of the box, and be innovative. This will help reduce youth unemployment, but it will mainly ensure young people take pride in their country again.
How Nenadi Esther Usman Aims to Resolve Youth Unemployment
Usman, who has a background in teaching and in financial governance, knows like no-one else that youth welfare does not increase solely through an increase in public spending. Rather, it is about creating policies that are conducive to stimulating the minds of not just young people, but also their families and their community as a whole. Additionally, creating these policies is generally must more affordable than simply throwing money at something.
This was raised in the Next Generation Nigeria report as well. The country is going through rapid social, demographic, and economic change. It could, if it plays its cards right, fully transform. Population is growing slowly now that the baby boom is over. By 2030, there will be enough young workers to sustain the country. If this continues, and the country invests in health and education standards, jobs can be created that increase the wealth of the average Nigeria three times by 2030, lifting 30 million people out of poverty. Of course, there are risks as well. Nigeria has to be plan and prevent the next generation from becoming radicalized or from engaging in religious or ethnic conflict. By 2020, it must create some 25 million new jobs, preferably outside of the oil sector. Oil contributes 40% to the GDP of the country, yet it accounts for just 0.15% of Nigerian employment.
Usman believes that one of the ways in which Nigerian goals can be achieved, is through the properties of the average Nigerian. Trading in mortgage securities could raise a huge amount of capital, and it could create a wealth of jobs in areas such as carpet installation, bricklaying, roofing, plumbing, painting, and so on. 234next.com has reported that, if Nigeria does want to be in the 20 greatest global economies by 2020, which it can do, it must generate credit internally.
A lot of work remains to be done in Nigeria, but Nenadi Esther Usman is hopeful for the future. She believes that young people are finally being given the voice they deserve. Focused on her election campaign at present, she wants to ensure that people know that her focus will be equally strongly on young people. She will listen to them, make sure education is accessible to them, and work on developing policies that are friendly to young people, giving them more opportunities to enter the workforce and gain employment. She also wants to rethink national financial policies in an effort to raise the much needed capital to increase the available jobs in her country, thereby propelling the entire country forward.