In as much as I love my beloved country Nigeria, I fear that we are walking on a time bomb that could explode any moment from now all because we have continued to neglect to emulate the fundamental building blocks that great nations have laid and effectively harnessed to their advantage for the growth of their citizens.
One principle that has remained constant over the years is change but then, there are two basic types of changes and they are progressive change and regressive change. It is either you are progressing or regressing, otherwise, you remain in the same position.
There are lots of issues that have been hindering our progress in this country and at the centre of it is unemployment. Unemployment has caused our country to gradually regress, defying the various efforts by the government aimed at reducing it, due to poor implementation.
The issue of unemployment has now, in fact, developed into a full-grown hydra-headed monster that will take huge amount of efforts that will span several years to resolve. Currently, it has been projected by the Federal Government that Nigeria’s unemployment rate will reach 33.5 per cent by 2020.
Data gathered from the International Labour Organisation in 2019, an agency of the United Nations that develops policies to set labor standards, indicated that the estimated youth unemployment rate in Nigeria was at almost 20 per cent. This statistics is, no doubt, very worrisome as it means that unemployment among the youths is basically growing and as it grows, there is a high probability that vices that come with lingering unemployment will continue to flourish in the country.
Africa has become the frontier destination for investors across the world. Investors from all over the world have been flocking into the continent, because of massive opportunities that abound because of the sheer population size that, the continent boasts of. The African start-ups ecosystem has, over the years blossomed and attracted many investors, who have invested, massively, in their businesses, with an eye on the high return on investment possibilities, although, the emergence of COVID-19, may have put a temporary restriction on that for now.
According to reports, African tech start-ups in 2019 raised over $1.3bn investment, which dwarfed the $200m invested in 2015. It goes without saying raise the necessary fund these start-ups need will help them scale with ease. This will also encourage as many people that are unemployed to start finding solutions to problems that can be turned into businesses too.
The start-up ecosystem has really grown, with many organisations taking the bull by the horn by empowering Nigerians to find Nigerian-made solutions to fundamental issues in various sectors of the Nigerian economy such as finance, health, education, media and entertainment, among others.
One of such Nigerian outfits, with foresight in providing succor to serious Nigerian start-ups through a pitch process is Deji Alli ARM Young Talent Award, simply called DAAYTA. The award is geared towards getting the very best of talents in Nigeria and giving them the necessary financial support that will enable them to fund their tech-enabled solutions and scale.
Few days ago, I had the opportunity, to attend the 2020 edition of the Deji Alli ARM Young Talent Award, DAAYTA 2020, a Corporate Social Responsibility initiative of ARM Group supported by TechnoVision and Tangerine Life, where I witnessed six passionate young Nigerian start-ups, pitch their solutions to real — Finish Reading on the Punch
