Nigeria’s youth empowerment drive must move beyond speeches and handouts to create jobs, businesses, innovations and sustainable solutions, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, has said.
Orelope-Adefulire made the call at the 2026 iHEAL Global Youth Impact Forum in Abuja, where she challenged young Nigerians to see themselves not as passive recipients of government interventions but as critical drivers of the country’s development.
Represented by her Special Assistant on Media, Publicity and Strategic Communication, Desmond Utomwen, the presidential aide said Nigeria’s large youth population could become one of the country’s greatest development assets if matched with education, finance, mentorship, technology and opportunities for meaningful participation.
“Young Nigerians should not be regarded merely as beneficiaries of development, but as indispensable partners and active architects of national and global transformation.”
She said the real test of youth empowerment was its ability to translate into economic independence and measurable impact, urging young Nigerians to turn their talents and ideas into enterprises capable of solving problems in their communities.
Orelope-Adefulire challenged participants to become innovators, ethical leaders and problem-solvers while championing peace, inclusion and environmental sustainability.
She said the Tinubu administration was pursuing opportunities for young Nigerians through economic diversification, digital innovation, entrepreneurship, skills development and job creation.
According to her, the SDGs office is also facilitating interventions in healthcare, education, water and sanitation, renewable energy, social protection, livelihoods and skills acquisition.
‘Young people must stop waiting to be empowered’
The forum’s emphasis on enterprise was reinforced by entrepreneur and former House of Representatives member, Shina Peller, who urged young Nigerians to embrace entrepreneurship and active citizenship.
Peller challenged youths to stop seeing government or conventional employment as the only route to economic advancement.
He said entrepreneurship should not merely be about personal wealth creation but also about building businesses that generate employment and tackle social problems.
Women, youths must take centre stage
The wife of the Kwara State Governor and Chairperson of the Waterlight Save Initiative Advisory Board, Olufolake AbdulRazaq, called for greater inclusion of women and young people in governance and national development.
AbdulRazaq said youth participation was indispensable to Nigeria’s socioeconomic and political transformation, urging young people to take advantage of mentorship, networking, grants and other opportunities available to them.
She described the iHEAL initiative, unveiled at the World Sustainability Summit in Doha, Qatar, as a departure from traditional aid models towards sustainable, long-term community empowerment.
N1m, N500,000 grants for young entrepreneurs
The Chief Executive Officer of Waterlight Save Initiative and convener of the forum, Ero Ibhafidon, said the initiative was designed to convert youth potential into productive economic activity.
He said its iHEAL Framework focuses on six interconnected areas: innovation, income and infrastructure; healthcare and hygiene; education and empowerment; agriculture, food and clean water; and living standards, leadership and livelihoods.
According to Ibhafidon, selected young entrepreneurs received non-refundable grants of N1 million and N500,000 to establish or expand their businesses.
Beneficiaries also received sewing machines, industrial grinding machines, hairdressing kits, professional makeup equipment and other vocational tools.
Ibhafidon said the goal was to create a practical bridge between “potential and productivity, ideas and enterprise, and dependency and economic empowerment.”
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of Lokoja Dialogues, Polly Alakija, urged young Nigerians to deploy their creativity and technical skills towards solving Nigeria’s persistent water challenges.
She called for stronger collaboration among communities, policymakers, innovators, academia and the private sector to transform discussions around water access into practical solutions.
The Waterlight Sustainable Ambassador, Dorcas Mutfwang, said the iHEAL framework was designed to tackle poverty through holistic, community-led interventions aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Abuja forum ultimately delivered a clear message: Nigeria’s youth dividend will only become meaningful when empowerment produces entrepreneurs, jobs, innovations and communities capable of sustaining their own development.