Paradigm Initiative Demands Policies For Youth Entrepreneur Development

Paradigm Initiative, alongside other partners, has called for urgent reforms to ensure that informal workers, especially youth entrepreneurs at the grassroots level, are not excluded from government social intervention programmes due to poor digital access and weak policy implementation.

Paradigm Initiative works to connect underserved African youths with improved livelihoods through its digital inclusion and digital rights programmes. Its initiatives include the Life Skills, ICT, Financial Readiness and Entrepreneurship (LIFE) training programme, Dufuna, and several digital rights advocacy projects.

Paradigm Initiative is also a pan-African non-profit social enterprise dedicated to fostering a digitally inclusive and rights-respecting environment across Africa. Founded in 2007, the organisation operates in Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya, Senegal, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, providing underserved youths with digital livelihood opportunities while promoting and defending digital rights.

The call was made at the concluded dialogue meeting organised by Paradigm Initiative in partnership with the Centre for Information Technology and Development in Abuja.

The landmark event brought together civil society organisations, labour representatives, and informal workers to identify gaps in Nigeria’s digital social protection system and propose rights-based solutions that promote inclusion and data protection.

In his remarks, Programme Officer at Paradigm Initiative, Sani Suleiman, called on the Nigerian Data Protection Commission to become more proactive in safeguarding the personal information of vulnerable citizens, particularly rural women who are often targeted by scammers through fraudulent requests for sensitive personal details.

He added that recommendations generated from the meeting would be presented to policymakers, parliamentarians, and relevant ministries as part of ongoing advocacy efforts by civil society organisations.

According to Suleiman, while civil society organisations may not directly enforce policy changes, they can continue to engage government institutions and provide evidence-based recommendations that reflect realities on the ground.

He further noted that the organisations involved already maintain engagement channels with lawmakers and ministries and intend to utilise those avenues to advocate for reforms that prioritise inclusion, accessibility, and protection for informal workers across Nigeria.

Suleiman said the objectives of the meeting included identifying gaps in digital social protection systems affecting informal workers, examining barriers to access and digital inclusion, generating recommendations for inclusive and rights-respecting policies, and strengthening collaboration between civil society groups, workers’ representatives, and policymakers.

He noted that recommendations generated from the dialogue would later be presented to relevant government institutions and lawmakers as evidence-based proposals for reform.

He stressed the need for a comprehensive overhaul of Nigeria’s current social protection framework, particularly through the expansion of digital penetration to rural communities to ensure that vulnerable populations are not excluded from government interventions.

Similarly, Executive Director of Glowing Minds Initiatives, Shamsudeen Abdulrazak, explained that the dialogue was convened to facilitate discussions among stakeholders on the challenges affecting informal workers within existing digital social protection systems.

He maintained that many existing policies lack adequate stakeholder engagement during formulation, resulting in systems that fail to address the practical realities faced by vulnerable communities.

According to him, the discussions focused on co-creating policy recommendations capable of guaranteeing inclusive and rights-respecting digital social protection systems.

Also speaking at the event, the Programme Officer and Team Lead at Centre for Information Technology and Development, Yesmin Salako Ejiwumi, said the increasing digitisation of social protection programmes must take into account the realities of informal workers, many of whom lack access to digital tools and internet services.

She explained that many artisans, traders, cobblers, and tailors in rural communities are unable to participate in digital registration processes because they do not own mobile phones or possess the necessary digital literacy skills.

Using previous government intervention programmes as an example, Ejiwumi noted that mandatory online registration processes automatically exclude people without access to phones or digital infrastructure.

According to her, the dialogue aimed to examine how digital social protection systems can be designed to effectively reach informal workers and prevent their exclusion from government support programmes.

She also expressed concern that some policy processes fail to adequately involve the demographic groups directly affected by such policies, particularly informal workers.