Africa may be home to the youngest population on earth, but its leaders are among the oldest; many are in their 80s. Most Africans, and especially young Africans, think their governments are doing a bad job at addressing the needs of youth, but young people struggle to gain access to power because ruling elites remain entrenched for decades. Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari seems woefully out of touch with his young electorate: in 2018 he accused young Nigerians of being lazy and uneducated. Young people are responding. In the Nigerian capital, Abuja, a thriving civic society led by young people encompasses everything from promoting good governance and increased transparency to increasing young voter registration and mentoring the leaders of tomorrow. But cultural norms and systemic barriers make it difficult for young people to be elected and monetisation of elections is a further issue: the cost of nomination forms for office is high and vote buying is endemic. The upcoming 2023 elections are likely to be a key moment for young people in Nigeria, when it will become visible if the impetus of recent social movements can be translated into an electoral force.

Lagos has undergone a cultural transformation in the last decade. Driven by its vast youth population, its creative industries, from art and design to music, film and fashion, are booming. Vogue magazine hails the city as West Africa’s cultural capital, and Nigeria’s music and entertainment industries stand to be its greatest export. And for this young generation of creatives, the Global North no longer resonates as the key tastemaker. As citizens of a boundless world they blend heritage with Western influences but remain deeply rooted in their African culture and express a growing confidence and pride in Africa and African identity.

The pace of urbanisation across sub-Saharan Africa over the last 60 years is without precedence. In 1950, most African countries were agrarian societies and just over a quarter of the population lived in cities. By 2020, the continent had 74 cities with a population of more than one million people, equivalent to the US and Europe combined. Today almost half of sub-Saharan Africans are urban dwellers and by 2050 that number is projected to reach 60 per cent. That means two- thirds of the continent’s projected population growth over the next three decades – an additional 950 million people – will be absorbed by the region’s humming, thriving, bustling megacities. And, as the OECD notes, ‘this transition is profoundly transforming the social, economic and political geography of the continent.’ Lagos, with a population of more than 20 million and economy bigger than that of Kenya is a vast, energetic and flourishing metropolis, a centre of opportunity that is enabling young Nigerians to be wealthier, more open-minded and more cosmopolitan than any before it.

Davies Okeowo, 30, is an entrepreneur and the winner of Next Titan, Nigeria’s version of The Apprentice

Japá is a Yoruba word that translates as ‘run away’. The word has become part of young Nigerian’s lexicon, defining the desire that many have to experience a new life abroad. Perceptions are that much of the country is looking to leave but the number of African immigrants is vastly overestimated. The share of Africans living abroad has barely increased since the 1960s. In 2017 of the 258 million international migrants worldwide, around 14 per cent of the total were African, equal to just under 3 per cent of the continent’s population. In the same year, 61 million international migrants were European, constituting almost 12 per cent of the population. In the main it is talented Nigerians that are leaving the country. Nigeria sends the largest number of African students abroad – some 95,000 – and ranks fifth in the world in terms of overall number of students in foreign study. Those that do leave continue to have a significant impact on their home nation, not least financially. For four consecutive years, official remittances from diaspora Nigerians have exceeded the country’s oil revenues. And many young African migrants are now seeking to return home and be part of the continent’s renaissance.

Priscilla Eke, 30, is a PhD researcher on Nigeria’s gender gap in leadership

Nigeria ranks first in the world in youthful entrepreneurship, with 40 per cent of young Nigerians engaged in early-stage entrepreneurial activity. With jobs scarce and often badly paid, a business on the side helps make ends meet. But it’s also a cultural attitude: entrepreneurial nous flows through this generation’s veins. New businesses tend to be focused on local and pan-African consumers and entrepreneurship is fuelled by social media. Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook are used as tools to sell physical products and services. Social enterprises are growing, too, as acting with humanity becomes an important consideration for many young entrepreneurs across the continent. The typical Soro Soke generation entrepreneur is a creative disruptor, using their business to deliver solutions to the larger problems the continent faces. But being an entrepreneur on the continent still poses significant challenges. Nigeria has the highest volume of start-ups on the African continent, over 750, but misses out on all the top 10 rankings for categories that are critical to helping a business thrive.

Rinu Oduala, 23, activist and organiser of the #endSARS movement

In 2019, when he was 36, Fortunes Paul Okoronkwo contested the governorship election in his home state, Abia State, under the platform of the Progressive People’s Congress, a relatively new political party. It was his first attempt at seeking elective office.

Michael Elégbèdé, 32, is chef and founder of Lagos fine dining restaurant Ítàn Test Kitchen

A new wave of global social movements is being led by young Africans. In the same way that a wave of European Baby Boomers took to the streets demanding social change as teenagers and young adults in the student protests of 1968, this cohort of young Africans are at the forefront of similar protests. And young sub-Saharan Africans are using social media to push back against tradition and fight for change, as exemplified by Nigeria’s #endSARS protests against police brutality. Driven by Twitter – at the movement’s peak in October 2020, 48 million #endSARS tweets were posted in just 10 days – #endSARS constituted the country’s most significant protest movement since pro-democracy rallies in the 1990s. Threatened by the power of platforms such as Twitter, the frequency and duration of internet shutdowns by governments across Africa is steadily increasing – in June 2021, the Nigerian government suspended Twitter in the country. For many young Nigerians #endSARS was a real political awakening. The protests created the recognition that young people could be a powerful political force, combined with the more brutal understanding that the establishment will respond violently to perceived challenges.

Sub-Saharan Africa has seen an extraordinary technological take-up. As recently as a decade ago, fewer than 5 per cent of sub-Saharan Africans had access to the Internet but by December 2020, approximately 85 per cent of Kenyans and 73 per cent of Nigerians had internet access. Growing connectivity is empowering a generation with opportunities that would have been unthinkable a little as 10 years ago. Young sub-Saharan Africans are using tech-based solutions across agriculture, education, finance, healthcare and infrastructure, to develop African economies at lower cost and faster speed. The use of smartphones, which enable greater use of mobile technology, is also growing. Nigeria’s mobile economy is set to grow by 19 per cent between 2019 and 2025 – the highest rate in Sub-Saharan Africa, which is the fastest-growing mobile technology region in the world. Mobile technologies and services generated 9 per cent of GDP in sub-Saharan Africa in 2019 – a contribution that amounted to more than US$155 billion of economic value and supported almost 3.8 million jobs. This reflects the fact that in some areas – such as the mobile financial sector – sub-Saharan Africa has become a global leader.

Nigeria remains a traditional culture, and religion is an inextricable part of society, permeating political, familial and socio-economic life. Young Nigerians are beginning to rebel against traditional roles. Empowered by the anonymity and strength in numbers that a megacity like Lagos provides, a growing feminist movement, led by young women, is seeking greater gender equality across work and family life. A small but vocal LBGTQ+ community is also emerging, particularly in the creative industries, and is using social media to speak out and challenge deeply rooted homophobic assumptions.

Osinachi, 30, is a digital visual artist based in Lagos. He has been described as ‘Africa’s foremost crypto artist’ and is currently working on the theme of the relationship between art, Africa and its cultures.

Princess Obiajulu Ugwu, 37, contested for office in the 2019 General Elections, running for a seat in the Enugu State House of Assembly