According the reports from the National youth survey conducted by the Centre for
Micro-enterprise Development in collaboration with the Ford Foundation. Representatives of Nigerian youths, on
Thursday, called on government at all levels to provide free and
reliable Internet services in public places across the country.
The demand was among the recommendations
made in a report on a n
It was presented in Lagos.
Presenting the position of the youths, an
entrepreneur and student named Olakunle Olajuwon-Ige said many could
not fully explore the potential of the Internet as a result of the high
cost of data.
Olajuwon-Ige noted that government could
make the Internet more accessible by providing free Wi-Fi in public
places across the country.
“There are positive things that youths
can benefit from the Internet. When you check through web pages, you
know how things are done elsewhere. That gives you an idea about what
you can also do,” he said.
Also, describing data subscription as too
expensive in Nigeria, he added, “With free Wi-Fi in public places,
youths will be able to access every part of the world to know what their
peers are doing. With that, they will be more creative and
entrepreneurial.”
Olajuwon-Ige said it was important the
older generation showed interest in social media, if only to know that
their children were really doing positive things on the cyberspace. He
dismissed insinuations that most youths were on social media to catch
fun, saying several of them had started life-transforming initiatives as
a result of the Internet.
If not for any other benefit, he argued, the Internet broadened the minds of users and exposed them to new possibilities.
However, Managing Director of Bowman
Microfinance Bank Limited, Mrs. Titilola Adeyeba, who was at the
unveiling event, urged parents and stakeholders to rise against what she
called growing social media abuses.
She said, “The challenge we have is how
we can make the youths to conduct themselves properly on the Internet.
The majority abuse the opportunity and this should be frightening to us
as a country.
“Youths need to decide what they want on
the Internet before they pick up telephones and laptops. They should use
the social media positively. Today, some youths do nothing beside
operating smart phones. This calls for caution.”
According to the survey, 6.5 per cent of
Nigerian youths rely on short message services for news. Three per cent
and 1.1 per cent say they visit Facebook and Twitter respectively while 0.8 per cent go to blogs for the same reason.
YouTube commands 0.7 per cent of
youths surfing the Internet for news content. While 2.5 per cent source
their daily news items from other areas of the Internet, the largest
chuck of youths still rely on content provided by traditional media.
The study also looked at the consumption
pattern across different social media platforms, including how youths
react to posts by family members/friends as well as links to videos and
articles.
It concludes that the largest proportion
are eager to read what their friends and family members post than
clicking on links for information.
The report, which has been uploaded on
the site of the Centre, says 35.2 per cent of youths do not know the
vocational skill they need in addition to formal education to excel in
life.
With 21.7 per cent, fashion designing tops preferred skill areas. It is followed by trading and hair dressing.
Ishaya said the research team was shocked
to learn that very insignificant number of the sample did not to take
banking as a career, a reason top financial service professionals were
invited to the presentation.
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