The Federal Government has challenged Nigerian youths to harness the country’s cultural heritage, technology and available policy instruments to create businesses, generate jobs and contribute to economic development.
Titilope Gbadamosi, Special Assistant to the President on Youth Initiatives, gave the charge in her keynote address at the 2026 International Youth Day Celebration organised by NACCIMA Youth Entrepreneurs (NYE).
Gbadamosi said the theme of the event provided an opportunity for young entrepreneurs to move beyond appreciating technology and heritage to deliberately leveraging them as productive assets.
She urged young business owners to ask whether technology was being deployed to solve real problems around distribution, financing, customer acquisition and other business constraints, rather than merely being presented as part of their business identity.
“When you describe your business as technology driven, have you actually used that technology to solve a problem? To solve a problem of distribution, financing or protection problems? Or is it simply the act your business happens to run on? When a policy instrument is announced, do you know its eligibility criteria well enough to apply on the day the application opens? Or do you find out about it three months after from a friend?
“Leverage, by definition, is a small well-placed action that moves something far larger than itself,” she said,
She urged participants to identify areas where technology, heritage and policy could provide the greatest impact for their ventures.
On technology, Gbadamosi advised young entrepreneurs against spending scarce capital building infrastructure that could instead be accessed through existing digital platforms.
She cited payment and digital business infrastructure as examples, encouraging entrepreneurs to use available technologies to scale their businesses while directing their resources towards their core products and services.
She also urged young entrepreneurs to protect their intellectual property by registering their designs, recipes and creative works with the appropriate authorities.
Gbadamosi said Nigeria’s creative economy demonstrated the commercial value of turning cultural assets into industries, pointing to the growth of Nollywood, Afrobeats and other creative sectors driven largely by young Nigerians.
She said the next opportunity was to combine Nigeria’s cultural heritage with technology and formal business structures to create scalable enterprises.
On heritage, Gbadamosi highlighted the Igbo apprenticeship system, as an example of an indigenous business development model that could be adapted to modern entrepreneurship.
According to her, heritage becomes an economic asset when it is formalised and structured in a way that allows it to be replicated.
She encouraged entrepreneurs using apprenticeship models to develop formal agreements, defined milestones and structured settlement arrangements that could make the system more scalable.
Gbadamosi also called on young entrepreneurs to make greater use of government policies and funding programmes designed to support businesses.
She said entrepreneurs should be proactive in understanding eligibility requirements and application windows rather than waiting to hear about government interventions from other people after applications had opened or closed.
She cited the Nigeria Startup Act, the Startup Investment Seed Fund and the Nigerian Youth Investment Fund among initiatives that young entrepreneurs could explore to support business creation and expansion.
She also encouraged entrepreneurs to formalise their businesses with the Corporate Affairs Commission and become active members of business associations and chambers of commerce.
According to her, participation in business associations can help entrepreneurs become more visible to policymakers and contribute to conversations that shape future business support programmes.
“Leverage is not passive. It requires you to be findable by the very policies that you hope will find you,” she said.
Gbadamosi further challenged participants to ensure that the conference produced tangible business outcomes rather than ending with the exchange of contacts and applause.
She urged each participant to leave the event with at least one concrete commitment, a potential business partner and a deadline for implementation before the end of the year.
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