Hasken Matasa: ‘Disruption Economy’ and Why the 21st Century Youth Must Be Enterprising

Hasken Matasa: ‘Disruption Economy’ and Why the 21st Century Youth Must Be Enterprising

AREWA AGENDA – Youths are without question, the back bone of any society. Realising this, the United Nations (UN) in the year 1999 declared August 12th the International Youth Day.

Commemorated every year since then, the programme encourages young people around the world to organise programmes and create awareness among themselves on situations of the youth in their respective country.

In marking the International Youth Day, Hasken Matasa, a live radio programme in Kano invited youths to speak on the theme: Entrepreneurship Skills; A Necessity for Youth in the 21st Century

Dr. Marzuk Abubakar Dangwaggo, Khadija Lawal Tudun-Wada and Badamasi Aliyu were the guests on the 48th episode of the radio programme.

Opening the show, Dr. Marzuk said the 21st century has come with what is termed ‘disruption’ and the world is now a knowledge driven economy.

“Disruption; a situation where a new technology or innovation displaces an existing one to create a new industry, is what the 21st century has come with and we need to exploit in order to succeed. An example of disruption can be found in the entertainment industry, before now, we buy CD plate to watch movies, but today we stream them online.

“Some years ago, we spend a lot of time learning one skill or getting a place a to learn, but today we can take advantage of the internet and learn in the comfort of our rooms within a very short time.

As far as entrepreneurial skill go, Dr. Marzuk said he can’t fault the youth because they were brought up with the mentality that once a person is educated, they get to secure a job and leave a cozy life.

“As a student of biology I know for certain that how people behave is a product of genetics and environment. We all grew up with the mentality that once we are educated we get good paying jobs and leave a happy life ever after, and this has to change.”

“The challenge with the youth of 21st century in Nigeria include the fact that meritocracy has being thrown over board and allowed to sink, lack of capital to fund business ideas and limited or no knowledge of entrepreneurship,” Marzuk said.

He then advised that youth study the economy, find problem and provide solution that can be used to earn money, skills like public speaking and writing should be acquired, as no capital is required to start up because, “we leave in a knowledge driven economy.”

Also speaking, Khadija Lawal Tudun-wada said: “though we did not grow up with the love of entrepreneurship, we can use technology and the advantage associated with young age to change the narrative”.

“Lack of mentorship and capital are the major reason youths are not engaged in entrepreneurship but searching for mentorship for oneself and doing any job available to raise capital before venturing into the skill of interest are ways the issue can be tackled.” Khadija suggested.

Badamasi Aliyu commenting on the subject said capital is not all about ‘currency’ but ‘brain’ can also serve as capital, that in fact the word ‘capital’ originated from the Greek word ‘Caput’ which mean brain.

“This is why the World Economic Forum listed public speaking, writing, computing, negotiations, collaboration and so on as the 21st century skills that will sell.

“Experts have already predicted that the 21st century is for entrepreneurs and not civil servants because at that point the world will be volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous,” Badamasi said.

“Multi-stakeholder approach that involves the government, universities and well to do individuals is one of the ways to breed more entrepreneurs in our society for sustainable development.

“Youngsters should be trained on skills of interest at very tender age, so they grow with the love for entrepreneurship, career counseling should introduced in schools and in schools where they have that already, they should try to serve their purpose and lastly mentorship for all skills should be provided for students and other children that are not opportuned to visit classrooms,” he said.

Nigeria has the largest population of youth in the world, with a median age of 18.1 years. About 70% of the population are under 30, and 42% are under the age of 15 according to data from worldometers.

Millions of young people have a poor quality of life, including a lack of education, low living standards and poor health outcomes.

Nigeria was ranked 158 of 185 countries in the 2019 Human Development Index. A 2022 World Bank report also says about 40% of Nigerians live below the national poverty line of U$1.90 per day and about 95.2 million are in poverty. About 19.4 million Nigerians are likely to face food insecurity in 2022.

Hasken Matasa, which literally translates into “Light of the Youths”, is a weekly programme on topical youth oriented issues organised by the Community Health and Research Initiative (CHR) and the Youth Society for Prevention of Infectious Diseases and Social Vices (YOSPIS), is sponsored by the Aminu Magashi Garba Foundation (AMG Foundation).