Intergenerational solidarity for youth development
To have a bigger impact on skilling for youth, the world needs to leverage the full potential of all generations.
To thrive in today’s world, young people need a full range of skills for success in school, work, and life. In addition to foundational skills such as basic literacy and numeracy, young people will need transferable skills, job-specific skills, and entrepreneurial skills.
The Nigerian youth have often been described as resourceful, creative, and entrepreneurial - traits that are important for building industries and economies. Young people are not afraid to make a switch in careers or interests. They, however, often go it alone in a bid to make a mark in their chosen industry. They do not always have access to the necessary funding, platform, or mentorship from older generations to hone their skills.
For this year’s International Youth Day, we look at three young Nigerians – Kachi, Favour, and Mykayla, who are trying to carve a path for themselves in the music industry.
Kachi Chuks, founder of KachiTV started as a music artist and had issues with funding, promotion, and support. He spent a good amount of time looking for sponsors to no avail. When funds were not forthcoming, he decided to pivot into media marketing, another area in the music industry. He registered his brand legally, promoted other people’s shows on Instagram, and started reaching out to already established names in the music industry. He succeeded in getting interviews and more shows to promote.
For Kachi, the most memorable part of using his skills as a young person was when he received an award in school.
I was nominated as the best social student for my media marketing work and I won based on votes. It showed that I was putting in the effort and people recognized it. This motivates me to do more.
Favour Izukah, Podcaster, Content creator, and social media strategist found a perfect way to put her storytelling skills to use in the music industry. She said ‘Storytelling skills are important. Social media has gone beyond just scrolling. One has to be able to tell captivating stories”, The music industry is wide. There’s the marketing aspect and content creation side of it. There are social media platforms to help you reach out to audiences beyond borders and countries. I think I can work in any industry.
Favor has been telling stories for a year and six months, often braving different circumstances to create social media content for brands. During the period, her most memorable day was when she received a commendation from her boss. This served as a confidence booster and has helped her to do more.
Mikayla Uzuegbu started as a music artist, attending singing competitions and performing songs written by others. She started writing songs in 2019, kept networking, and promoting her songs on social media. She was discovered by a music producer who invested in her and produced her first single, pro bono.
having a song produced for me made me feel seen and validated my skills. If my songs go through proper promotion, I am sure it would have made a bigger impact
Kachi, Favour, and Mikayla are well on their way to achieving their ambitions, but they can get there faster with the right support, platforms, mentorship, investment, and co-creation that can be offered by other generations who already have experience in building business. This is not peculiar to these three, indeed, it is the case with the Nigerian youth.
To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the world needs to leverage the full potential of all generations. Solidarity across generations is key for sustainable development. Everyone’s input counts. To have a bigger impact on skilling for youth, there should be collaboration across generations to pool resources and synergize efforts.
At UNICEF, we are working towards this with Generation Unlimited, a leading global Public-Private-Youth Partnership on a mission to skill and connect young people to opportunities for employment, entrepreneurship, and social impact. The partnership brings together global organizations and leaders including Heads of State, CEOs, Heads of UN agencies, and civil society champions with young people to co-create and deliver innovative solutions on a global scale.
