The Director of Youth Advocacy and Policy at the National Youth Council of Nigeria, NYCN, Ajayi Taiwo, has called for comprehensive structural reforms to address persistent fragmentation within Nigeria’s youth development architecture.
Taiwo made the appeal on Friday while speaking on the state of youth policy implementation across the country.
He noted that despite the existence of a National Youth Policy and multiple youth-focused programmes, coordination remains weak and largely unaligned.
According to him, “youth-related interventions are currently spread across several ministries, departments and agencies, including those responsible for labour and employment, education, digital economy, agriculture, industry and humanitarian affairs.”
He explained that these institutions often operate without harmonised budgeting systems, shared performance indicators or a unified monitoring and evaluation framework.
“Nigeria does not lack youth initiatives. What is missing is a coherent governance architecture that aligns targets, funding streams, and accountability mechanisms across sectors,” Taiwo said.
He observed that Nigeria remains one of the world’s youngest countries, with more than half of its population under the age of 30, stressing that this demographic reality makes policy coherence an economic and national stability priority.
Taiwo also warned that without effective coordination, government programmes risk duplication, inefficient allocation of resources and limited long-term impact, particularly in areas such as job creation, entrepreneurship development, digital skills acquisition, civic engagement and agricultural participation.
While acknowledging ongoing efforts under the National Youth Policy framework, he pointed out that the absence of a consolidated reporting system makes it difficult to measure national progress accurately on youth development outcomes.
He stated that youth development must transition from fragmented interventions to a systems-driven model capable of delivering measurable, transparent and sustainable results.
The NYCN Director proposed the creation of a Unified National Youth Framework to integrate youth-focused policies under a central coordination mechanism reporting at the highest levels of government.
He clarified that the proposed framework would not replace existing initiatives but would ensure strategic alignment, reduce duplication and strengthen accountability across federal and state levels.
He also recommended transparent tracking of youth-related expenditure and annual impact assessments to guarantee value for money.
“Youth development must move from isolated interventions to an integrated national strategy.
“If properly coordinated, Nigeria’s youth population can drive economic growth, deepen democratic participation, and strengthen social cohesion. Without structural reform, however, we risk underutilising our greatest national asset,” he said.
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