The ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) has urged the Federal Government to boost Information Communication Technology (ICT), among youths to cushion the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on them.
This follows the devastation caused by the novel Coronavirus across the world, which Nigeria remains one of the worst-hit nations.
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The Country Director, AAN, Ene Obi, made the call Wednesday in Abuja at the ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) validation meeting of the Social Mobilization Unit and Youth Digital Engagement (YDE) Project, which was also attended by some online participants.
Obi, represented by the Director, Programmes, AAN, Suwaiba Yakubu Jibrin, urged government to consider and take issues affecting young people seriously.
According to her, the research was undertaken by the youths themselves, supported by a consultant, which also will help shape out and how the youths can recover through government’s ICT innovations.
The objectives of the report showed that the COVID-19 pandemic had adverse effects on livelihoods worldwide, especially for the aged and young ad that for young persons, the pandemic led to more job losses and widened the social exclusion gap.
The data was collected by Community Champions and ActionAid Activistas in collaboration with other partners in Abuja, Akwa Ibom and Gombe states.
She said, “This project is one of the projects that is very key to ActionAid Nigeria for education to grow and develop, the youth must be taken into consideration and taken seriously.
“The impact of COVID-19 can never be underestimated, and only those who are affected can testify because he who wears the shoes knows where it pinches. This research was undertaken by the youths themselves, supported by a consultant; they have done a great job by trying to understudy how the impact of COVID-19 has affected them.
“The research is also helping to shape out, how the youths can recover but recover more innovatively through ICT, using the ICT to turnaround. We are all aware COVID-19 has presented a dawn and we all have to abide. We cannot avoid it.”
While presenting the Youth Digital Engagement (YDE) report, a consultant for ActionAid Nigeria, Dr. Terfa Abraham, said that the need for government to innovatively up-scale digital literacy in order for youths to access job opportunities from government and other interventions cannot be over emphasized.
Abraham also said the data was collected instantly and transparently, which made him confident about the data collection process
“What we are doing through this YED is to show government o how to achieve its programmes better, and what we are saying is all government is doing is to take a little step further to where people see it and have access to it. If development is not seen as inclusive process young people will continue be excluded.
“The development paradigm in Nigeria is still top to bottom. The way you want to aggregate to have a national budget for instance is to do a horizontal summation of the needs of persons from Local governments to states and then from states and it goes to federal, and you do that you capture group representatives in this discourse.
“Let government’s innovation be on this way to reach out to those at the grassroots and the digital innovation needed to drive the economic and employment space, and that needs to go beyond websites,” he said.
The report reads in part, “The priority area for the YDE project as determined from the data collected identifies employment as the major area requiring intervention and engagement. Seventy-six percent of PWDs also identified with employment as their priority area.
“Addressing the issues of exclusion of PWDs would therefore be a vital step in expanding their access to job opportunities. Young people yearn for employment creation and access public services to be more gender responsive.”
On his part, the Social Mobilisation Manager, ANN, Mr. Adewale Adeduntan, said that COVID-19 has drastically changed the lives of young people living in Nigeria owing to loss of income and job insecurity to stalled education and a lack of clean water.
He noted that young people and their communities are being forced to explore new and innovative ways of coping.
“Connected as never before young women and men are increasingly influencing the course of their communities and countries. Despite their capacity to shape social and economic innovations, they are increasingly left out in access to livelihood enhancement programmes put in place by governments. One place one is sure to find today’s youth is in the digital space,” he said.
