Report Raises Alarm As 80m Youths Remain Jobless, 1,500 Schools Shut In Two Years

Nigeria’s youth population is facing a precarious future, with fresh figures showing that nearly 80 million young citizens are without jobs, while over 1,500 schools have been closed in the last two years due to rising insecurity.

The revelations were contained in the State of the Nigerian Youth Report 2025, unveiled yesterday in Abuja by Plan International Nigeria in partnership with ActionAid. The report paints a grim picture of wasted potential in a nation where more than 60 per cent of the population is under 30.

According to Jonathan Abakpa, Advocacy and Youth Programme Officer at Plan International, the situation is further compounded by the fact that 1.7 million graduates enter the labour market yearly with little or no prospect of employment. He warned that unless deliberate efforts are made to tackle insecurity, poverty, and poor infrastructure, the country risks losing its most valuable resource—its young people.

The report also documented how prolonged violence has devastated farming communities, with no fewer than 77,000 lives lost to ethnic clashes within the past five years and 2.6 million people displaced, mostly in agrarian areas.

Meanwhile, presidential aide, Sunday Dare, has called on young Nigerians to maximise opportunities created under President Bola Tinubu’s youth-centred policies. Speaking at the Arise Congress 2.0, attended by over 24,000 youths at the Baptist International Convention Centre along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Dare described young Nigerians as “champions of the Renewed Hope agenda.”

He highlighted government initiatives such as the NELFUND tuition loans, conditional cash transfers, and ongoing agricultural interventions as avenues for empowerment. Dare, who also chairs the Youth and Student Ministries Advisory Board of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, emphasised the importance of discipline, self-motivation, and moral character in nation-building.

The four-day congress, themed The Emergence of Champions, continues till September 6, with the President of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, Rev. Israel Adelani Akanji, and other dignitaries in attendance.