The start of a year always comes with a burst of energy, as with the beginning of almost everything else in my life. The old has passed away and all has become new. We expectantly set goals and make New Year resolutions, declaring our resolves to make that year the best year yet; we put past failures and goals not met behind us and march on with all hope towards new ones set.

The year 2016 is by no means an exception to such excitement and energy, with millions setting for themselves goals to achieve and projects to accomplish in the year. This is particularly so among young Nigerians who want to use their energy positively, ever conscious of the fact that time is a commodity that once lost cannot be regained.

However, the question is how far will the government go to help young Nigerians make 2016 an unforgettable year?

It is common knowledge that Nigeria is quite a young country, with 52 million people between the ages of 18 and 40. This fits right within the demographic trend of Africa with a young, growing population that is projected to be sustained over the next few decades in contrast with the rest of the world which has an ageing population.

While this represents a lot of opportunity to create more value for the economy and wealth for the country, it can also be a ticking time-bomb if not handled properly. As it stands currently, it is looking like the latter is more likely to happen than the former.

The two major worries of young Nigerians is finding stable, sustainable jobs and access to quality education. It is these two problems that the Nigerian governments at all levels will need to find solutions to in order to turn our youth population from a potential catastrophe into a wealth opportunity.

Government needs to think of policies and programs that will create millions of jobs that are sustainable. With an average of 700,000 persons per quarter exiting the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and joining the labour market, the current job creation rate of about 475,000 does not go far enough.

It is also interesting to note that 90% of new jobs came from the informal sector, which not only means often that they are not secure, but they do not have access to government and financial sector support as well as the government does not benefit by way of taxation.

The Federal Government as well as state governments need to direct their spending on programs that can stimulate the creation of jobs. It is laudable that the Federal Government is intending to spend 30% of its 2016 budget on capital expenditure, mostly on infrastructural projects as clearly indicated by the merger of the Works, Housing and Power Ministries and the appointment of former Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola to run the new ministry. It will be good for it to go further to tie new jobs created as criteria for the awarding of public contracts.

Although the purses of governments in Nigeria are getting leaner, it will be great for state governments to follow the lead of the FG and increase their spending, directed at public works programs to meet the huge infrastructural need of Nigeria and create jobs in the process.

Over the past few years, millions of young Nigerians have increasingly taken to entrepreneurship admirably, and there have been government programs and initiatives to support them, such as the Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YOUWin) competition, which ran for three editions.

Curiously enough, the Buhari administration has kept mum on whether it intends to continue the scheme and if it has other ideas for encouraging youth entrepreneurship.

Beyond this, there is also a need for the Federal and state governments to explore how the right policies will spur more young people into starting their own enterprises and generating jobs for more people, especially young people.

Whether this is loosening restrictions on foreign exchange to enable young entrepreneurs pay for critical services that are not available in Nigeria or states investing in tech infrastructure such as broadband internet to create tech hubs in their areas, the options available to governments are plentiful and can only be limited by size of funds available and not ideas.

Lastly, the Federal Government desperately needs to overhaul its higher education policy by making it easier to start tertiary institutions in the country. At present, the number of university places available each year amounts to only 10% of the number of candidates that sit for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Exams (UTME).

This is one of the reasons why millions of Nigerian students go outside the shores for education to likely places like the United States and the United Kingdom and even the unlikely ones like Sudan and Uganda.

Additionally, the curricula of these schools need to be updated in order to bring them in line with the reality of today’s world. The aim of education should not be to simply confer one with a certificate, but to equip them with skills that will enable them to make a decent living and contribute to the society.

It is ironic that despite the high youth unemployment rate, there is a shortage of technical manpower in Nigeria, forcing us to import masons from next-door Togo, for instance. Obviously, it means there is a disconnect in how relevant the education we give young people from what the needs of the society are.

While it is still the start of the year and it might seem that we have a lot of time at hand, it is important that these issues are approached with all the urgency that can be mustered so that we can truly make 2016 the Year of the Nigerian Youth.