The US-based MacArthur Foundation has launched a Nigeria youth initiative that it says hopes to improve digital literacy and boost their voice in civic and public life, via a mix of grants, impact investments.  

The $9 billion foundation said the new grant giving ‘Nigeria Next’ initiative aims to address the growing Global North-Global South Ai divide, and backing hubs dedicated to research, mentoring young people and equipping them for the workforce.  

Around 60 percent of Nigeria’s population is under the age of 30, and 42 percent is under 15. 

MacArthur said that despite its youthful potential, ‘digital skills lag behind labour market demand’, with just seven percent of young people in Nigeria having the required digital skills ‘needed to participate fully in the digital economy’.  

‘Young Nigerian voices are also absent in global artificial intelligence (AI) policy conversations,’ the foundation said. 

MacArthur’s move comes amid growing philanthropic activity in Nigeria. 

The Education Outcomes Fund (EOF), a global initiative bringing philanthropic funds alongside governments, will launch the ‘outcomes-based’ fund along with the regional government of Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city.  

Supported by the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, UBS Optimus Foundation, and Japan’s foreign minister, the Lagos programme (otherwise known as the Lagos Education Access Fund) aims to reach up to 200,000 children aged 6–14. 

There is also mounting geopolitical and financial interest in Africa’s most populous country.  

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas visited Nigeria in late March in a bid to foster ‘deepening cooperation’. 

The EU announced an investment package of 290 million euros for Nigeria in digitalisation, health, agriculture and what it called ‘migration management’, paying the west African nation for the ‘reintegration of returning migrants’.  

Human rights organisations have warned that the ‘cash‑for‑migrants’ model, effectively paying governments to stop people from leaving or bringing people back, can entrench unaccountable security elites rather than protect migrants’ rights. 

According to the International Organisation for Migration, unemployment and debt push young Nigerians to leave.  

Over 80 million young people in Nigeria are without a formal job, with three to four million workers every year joining the workforce. 

Shafi Musaddique is the news editor at Alliance magazine  

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