Over the past two decades, the need for proper integration of financial literacy, entrepreneur and digital innovation into the Nigerian education system and economic framework has been a clarion call for some critical stakeholders; profit and non-profit organisations in the country.
One of these non-profit organisations is Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN), dedicated to empowering Nigerians from aged five to 27 years with the vision and mission to educate and to raise young conscientious business leaders that will lead a vibrant economy.
During JAN’s first stakeholders engagement session meeting held recently, members and partners of the organisation converged via a virtual platform to deliberate on the challenges facing Nigerian youths and how they can pull their resources together to reach the next one million Nigerian students and youths by 2025.
In her opening remarks, the Executive Director of the organisation, Foluso Gbadamosi, noted that the essence of the meeting was to let the public know how they are working with different organisations to address issues affecting the youths. “I look forward to more engagement sessions like this where we can discuss topical issues and challenge ourselves to do more,” she said.
Olaniyi Yusuf of Verraki Partners and the board chairman of the organisation, while thanking the 10 partners that sit on JAN’s board, stated that it took JAN 20 years to reach one million youths, adding that “We still need more help of partners, technology delivery platform and volunteers that can help us achieve our goal of reaching the second set of one million students in five years.”
The engagement comprised three interactive sessions: financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship and digital literacy sessions.
Financial literacy session
Moderated by Adeola Olumeyan of Channels TV, the panellists of this session deliberated on the importance of financial and investment literacy on the teeming Nigerian youth. “The trend of population and inflation growth is not balanced in Nigeria. For this reason, what impact would financial literacy have on the youths?” Olumeeyan asked.
Reacting to the question, Folake Ani-Mumuney of First Bank stated that it is important that all aspects of the society, right from an early stage, understand the role of commerce as the engine of any national production, adding that a full understanding of financial literacy is critical in ensuring that not only do we have a vibrant economy, but also job creators and not job seekers.
When the moderator asked how early it is to start financial literacy, Abiola Biya of Union Bank noted that financial literacy is a life-long learning, and that the early one starts the better. She added that financial literacy has an impact on the future—on how money is spent, what one can do with money, and how one interacts with financial institutions.
“From when children are born, it’s important for parents to show them what money means,” Biya said. “If this is done, as they grow older, more complex aspects of financial literacy—like investment and budgeting, comes easier for them because they’ve a solid foundation.”
Dave Uduanu of Sigma Pensions noted that pension is similar to what banks do in terms of savings and investment. He emphasised that it is important that people are taught how to save early for retirement from when they get a job, not when they are 50 or 60 years.
Asked how much one should save for pension to make sense to them, Uduanu stated that there is no magic number to that, but advised that people should save enough money so that they can maintain the same standard of living when they retire. “The minimum requirement is 18 per cent of your income. In some climes, the savings rate is as much as 30 per cent. The key thing is to start saving on time. These savings are invested by the pension fund which brings additional income to the pensioner,” Uduanu said.
About what JAN Company Program is about, Oduolayinka Osunloye, a product of the Company Program who’s also the Director of Marketing and Innovation at JAN, stated that the programme is a 20-week programme for students in senior secondary school II on how to start and run a business successfully.
“It’s about understanding that entrepreneurship is, at the core, not about making money, but about solving a problem and closing gaps within our communities,” Osunloye said. “If we give students the right support, there is nothing they cannot do.”
Rounding up the session, Olumeyan stated that the various supports from JAN partners to individual children are helping the country to grow. “When we empower one, we empower all,” she said.
Work readiness and entrepreneurship session
This session was moderated by Zakari Momodu of the Aliko Dangote Foundation and also a JAN board member. His first question was, “Why do you all as individuals and body corporates promote entrepreneurship, and why specifically JA Nigeria?”
Reacting to the question, Olaniyi Yusuf stated that it is a responsibility to make sure that the environment one works and lives in is successful. He noted that JAN is one of the leading organisations that does education and entrepreneurship at scale and at different levels—primary, secondary, tertiary and post tertiary levels.
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji of Future Africa stressed that every challenge in the society is an opportunity for people to build things, adding that the most valuable skills that can be given to children are skills learnt from JAN—the skills of being able to create value—and that that is what entrepreneurship is about.
On how JAN is moving from analogue to more digital and larger-population approach to reaching more young people, Gbadamosi stated that it is a big challenge to reach low-income communities because of limited technology. She noted that solving a problem is one thing, using technology to solve it, is another thing.
“We’re getting to the part where we’re getting a lot of partnership to solve the problems of getting our youths trained digitally the right way,” Gbadamosi said. “What we’re doing now is adding that digital layer, and that’s why we’ve added digital literacy to one of our pillars at JAN.”
When the moderator asked what JAN can do to impact children, especially children in less advantaged schools, Sade Hughes of Mixta Africa stressed that the youth is everything Nigeria has. She noted that Mixta Africa has recognised that there are certain life and leadership skills that a large segment of the youth could need help with, and that they would continue to collaborate with JAN in that regard.
“So, in this regard, we’re sponsoring three hundred youths to assist them to develop financial skills such as financial literacy, business planning, savings, investment, etc., to give them a better chance to be employable,” Hughes said.
On why people should invest in JAN and how they can do that, Yusuf said, “What JA Nigeria provides is a trusted platform that organisations can use to exponentially increase their impact to the society.”
While rounding up the session, Aboyeji stresses that their work and passion in JAN go beyond corporate social responsibility (CSR), adding that, “It’s an investment, not CSR. If you think about it as, I want to hire the next generation of entrepreneurial talents, and I’m going to start sowing those seeds today by working with JAN, then you’re making the right decision.”
Digital literacy session
This session was oderated by Gbadamosi. Her first question was what impact digital literacy will have on Nigeria youths.
Ifeoma Dozie of MasterCard stated that we are living in the third Industrial Revolution, and that it is about how the digital and technology are connecting or dividing us. She further stated that building an equitable digital economy is everyone’s responsibility, and that it starts with the youth. She added that it is important to focus on digital inclusion because it is an enabler of economic empowerment and overall financial wellbeing.
Rolake Akinkugbe-Filani of Mixta Africa noted that they have seen a lot of young people who have created emerging digital innovations in areas such as the buying and selling of houses online. She stated that the only way to sustain the future of work is through digitisation, and if young people are the future, there should be a way to bring these two things together.
Aboyeji stressed that the most interesting element of digitisation is having young people to understand the way long-term values are created. He opined that, in terms of what Nigeria is able to be globally competitive in, digitisation can be one of the ways Nigerian can export their skills to the world.
Titi Akinsanmi of Google and also a board member of JAN emphasised that digital skills are crucial, but irrelevant if the regulating environment does not provide infrastructures that will support the acquisition of these skillsets. She added that for digital literacy and skills to be impactful and sustainable, there need to be increased partnership among the necessary stakeholders.
“Digital skills are great, and institutions from the private, non-profit and public sectors are being laid,” Akinsanmi said. “However, if this is not integrated within the educational system of Nigeria, there will be a gap in the process.”
On how to build sustainable systems that can serve under-served communities, Aboyeji noted that building sustainable systems is a layered process, and that it is the government that lay the policy framework for it, then larger enterprises are able to build on top of that framework to build solid infrastructure, then the entrepreneurs can build on top of that solid infrastructure. “And, that’s how society develops,” he added.
Akinkugbe-Filani used the housing analogy to explain how to build sustainable systems. She stated development is about solving a problem—given limited resources—in a most innovative and cost effective way to meet market needs. “We need to look for fast ways to scale and meet up with economic and society needs. But, that cannot happen in a vacuum. What we need is an enabling environment,” she said.
Closing of the sessions
In his closing remarks, Rufai Ladipo of Agile Communications and also a board member of JAN, stressed that the conversations generated in the sessions are critical to the work they do, and that JAN will continue to proffer solutions to the bigger problems facing the youths. “We call on organisations to partner with JAN by supporting our programmes for the success JAN.”
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