From Digital Consumers to Creators: Why Nigeria Must Invest in Young People, by Firdausi Abubakar

One question I often ask myself as a young Nigerian is simple: what kind of country are we building, and what place will people of my generation occupy in its future?

We hear constantly about economic growth, government reforms, investment and development. These conversations matter. But I sometimes wonder whether we are paying enough attention to the people who will ultimately determine whether those ambitions succeed.

This was why recent remarks by Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), caught my attention. His emphasis on digital literacy, innovation and productive participation speaks to a larger national challenge: Nigeria cannot build a modern economy if millions of young people remain principally consumers of technologies developed elsewhere.

In the world we live in today, technology influences almost everything. It has changed how we communicate, learn, trade, work and build businesses. A young entrepreneur can run a business from a mobile phone. A student can take an online course from another continent. A skilled professional can work remotely for clients thousands of kilometres away.

For a country with Nigeria’s youthful population, this represents an opportunity we cannot afford to waste.

What particularly interests me is the attempt to turn digital literacy into a grassroots endeavour. Under the Digital Literacy for All (DL4ALL) initiative, NITDA is working with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to train and deploy corps members as Digital Literacy Champions in communities. Inuwa has said the plan is to engage 80 corps members in each state and the Federal Capital Territory to deliver digital-literacy sessions in places such as markets, motor parks, religious centres and other community spaces.

As a serving corps member, I find this particularly encouraging because it gives national service another dimension.

NYSC does not have to mean spending one year at a place of primary assignment and waiting for clearance. A digitally skilled corps member serving in a community can help a small-business owner understand how to promote products online. Another can introduce students to digital-learning opportunities. Someone else can help citizens acquire basic skills that make everyday tasks easier.

These may appear to be small interventions, but their effects can travel surprisingly far.

A trader who learns to reach customers online may increase sales. A secondary-school student introduced to coding or data analysis may discover an entirely new career. A young person who learns to use digital tools productively may eventually become an entrepreneur rather than another graduate waiting indefinitely for employment.

Inuwa has described digital literacy as important to national development, innovation and economic growth, while NITDA’s framework covers areas including information and data literacy, digital content creation and innovation. The agency also says the programme is intended to improve corps members’ employability and entrepreneurial potential. 1

That is the connection Nigeria needs to strengthen: skills must lead somewhere.

This is also how I think initiatives such as the Three Million Technical Talent programme should ultimately be judged. Nigeria certainly needs more people trained in software development, cybersecurity, data analysis and other technology fields. But enrolment and graduation numbers should never become the final definition of success.

The more important questions come afterwards.

How many participants secure jobs? How many become freelancers? How many establish businesses? How many develop useful products? How many use their newly acquired skills to solve problems within their communities?

A training certificate is encouraging. An income, a viable business or a locally developed solution is transformative.

This is where the shift from consumption to production becomes meaningful to me.

Production in the digital age is not limited to factories. A Nigerian software developer creating an application is producing. A cybersecurity professional protecting an organisation’s systems is creating economic value. A digital marketer helping a small business reach new customers is contributing to productivity. So is the entrepreneur who uses technology to improve agriculture, healthcare, education or logistics.

But there is an uncomfortable reality we must acknowledge: you cannot build an inclusive digital economy on unequal digital access.

A young person may be eager to learn, but enthusiasm cannot charge a laptop when there is no electricity. Ambition cannot compensate indefinitely for unreliable internet. Digital-skills programmes will struggle to deliver their full value when participants lack devices, affordable connectivity or spaces in which they can practise.

This is why Nigeria’s technology conversation must include infrastructure. Skills development and digital infrastructure are not competing priorities. They depend on each other.

There is also a geographical question. Nigeria’s digital future cannot belong mainly to Abuja, Lagos and a handful of major cities. The young person in a rural community deserves the opportunity to discover technology just as much as the student surrounded by innovation hubs in an urban centre.

The partnership between NITDA and NYSC offers an interesting way of addressing this last-mile challenge because corps members already serve in communities across Nigeria. In February 2026, NITDA recognised eight corps members serving as Digital Literacy Champions with eight laptops and a combined ₦3.5 million award, reinforcing an initiative designed to bring digital education closer to communities. 1

But the programme’s greater promise lies beyond rewards. It lies in what happens when thousands of young Nigerians become teachers of digital opportunity wherever national service takes them.

Our generation should also be included more meaningfully in conversations about technology and development. Young Nigerians are repeatedly called “leaders of tomorrow”, yet many are already building companies, creating content, developing software, conducting research and solving community problems today.

We do not simply need seats in audiences. We need pathways for participation.

As a corps member, this is what makes these initiatives relevant to me. National service can become more meaningful when the skills of young people are connected directly to the needs of communities. Digital training can become more useful when it leads to work, entrepreneurship and continued learning.

Moving Nigeria from consumption towards production is an ambitious objective. Technology alone will not achieve it. Neither will training programmes without infrastructure, or infrastructure without capable people.

Nigeria must train its young people, make digital tools accessible, improve connectivity, support entrepreneurship and create an environment in which locally developed ideas can grow.

I may not have all the answers to Nigeria’s development challenges, but I am convinced about one thing: investing in people is a practical place to start.

I want to see a Nigeria where a young person can acquire a useful skill, practise it, earn from it and continue growing without having to overcome unnecessary barriers at every stage.

Beyond announcements and impressive figures, that should be our measure of digital transformation: whether technology expands the choices available to ordinary Nigerians.

If Nigeria can achieve that, young people will no longer simply consume the digital future being created elsewhere.

Firdausi Abubakar is a serving NYSC member in Abuja

Economic Confidential is a magazine published and produced by Image Merchant Promotion (IMPR) Limited, an Abuja-based Public Relations (PR) outfit with specialty in Media Relations, Crisis Communication, Social Media, Publishing, and Integrated Marketing Communication.