NIGERIA boasts of one of the world's largest pools of a growing middle-class population, but the retrogressive trend of its economy is frustrating even the young innovative minds. However, some youths (Under 40 years of age) have already proven that they can carve a niche for themselves in our staggering economy and excel at what they do. These young men and women are showing how they have used their ideas to overcome economic handicaps, and they represent the millions of young people using innovation to remedy economic stagnation.
One young Nigerian who knows her industry very well is 34-year-old Uche Pedro, the Chief Executive Officer of Bella Naija. Bella Naija is well known as the internet media brand concerned with entertainment and lifestyle content. Uche Pedro started her media company at the time she knew was the perfect opportunity to be in the vanguard of a few online blogs or news websites. She carved a niche for her business, Bella Naija focused on exclusive coverage of weddings and fashion events. This has so far made the company a point of reference and an enduring media company in Nigeria for over a decade.
If you know Bella Naija then you must know Linda Ikeji, officially Linda Ikeji Blog & TV. Linda Ikeji made the right decision to put brand her name and turn that name into a business, a business that became a household name in every house (whether they liked gossip or not). She is now touted as the richest blogger in Nigeria after masterminding Nigeria's most influential gist blog. One of the most successful bloggers out of Africa, Linda made gossip one of the most marketable commodities in the Entertainment industry and attracted the largest followership of loyal readers.
Seun Osewa may not be the mighty famous name you are acquainted with but everyone knows what Nairaland is. Seun Osewa is 36 years old and he has been an internet entrepreneur all his life, Nairaland is one of his enterprises. Osewa launched Nairaland in March 2005 as an online forum for conversational communities and the platform has become famous and extremely useful, even with the advent of social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
Many young people today owe Jobberman for doing them the favour of setting them up for a job. The most interesting fact about Jobberman is that it was created by a trio of young men: Ayodeji Adewunmi (35), Opeyemi Awoyemi (31) and Olalekan Olude (35 years old). Jobberman was created in 2009 when the three youths were undergraduate students at Obafemi Awolowo University. The company has now become Nigeria's top recruitment platform online.
Temie Giwa-Tubosun is well known among young people in the innovation and the sacredness of her business. The 33-year-old entrepreneur is using her company, LifeBank, to save lives. Her company works to make timely delivery of blood to hospitals and patients who need it. LifeBank is working to deliver health solutions to the doorstep of hospitals just like pizza delivery.
A younger Nigerian who runs his own company and is making significant contributions is Abubakar Falalu who is 28 years old. Falalu founded Falgates, a company that farms and mills rice. They produce about 15 tons of farm produce every day. He has employed over 200 people, directly and indirectly, he has also been reported to raise around 150 million Naira in annual revenue as far back as 2017.
What these young people have in common is an innovative mind capable of turning the tides of problems into streams of solutions and a drive to succeed no matter the difficulties. Many Nigerian youths have these qualities, but need to persevere and keep planning. We are overcoming these turbulent economic times with grit and hard work, but we must also have faith in our dreams to be able to keep on pushing despite all odds. If these guys did, every Nigerian youth can. It just must start with our leaders fixing the bolts.
