“Go and start a business.” For years, entrepreneurship has been presented as the answer to Nigeria’s youth unemployment crisis, but can entrepreneurship alone create enough jobs for millions of young Nigerians?The short answer: No.

It is an important part of the solution.Nigeria’s labour market tells a more complicated story. While the official unemployment rate was 4.3% in Q2 2024, youth unemployment among those aged 15–24 was 6.5%, while 12.5% of young Nigerians were not in employment, education or training (NEET). Even more striking, about 93% of employment was informal.So the challenge isn’t simply unemployment. It is the shortage of stable, productive and decent economic opportunities

Nigeria already has millions of entrepreneurs. MSMEs account for roughly 97% of businesses and almost 88% of employment, according to NBS/SMEDAN data cited by PwC.That makes entrepreneurship incredibly important, but there is a difference between self-employment and job creation. A young person selling food, clothes or digital services may create an income for themselves, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they can employ 20 other people.

Nigeria therefore needs to move from: Self-employment → sustainable businesses → scalable enterprises → mass employment. Again, should Every Young Person Become an Entrepreneur? No. An economy needs entrepreneurs, but it also needs teachers, engineers, nurses, accountants, technicians, researchers, software developers and skilled employees, a job is not failure.

Entrepreneurship is not the only form of ambition.The real objective should be economic opportunity, giving young Nigerians the skills and environment to earn, build and contribute.

Many is of the opinion that capital is certainly a major problem, but it isn’t the only one. Young entrepreneurs also face, high operating costs, poor infrastructure, unreliable electricity, inflation, limited access to affordable finance, weak purchasing power, poor business-management skills, difficulty accessing markets, regulatory challenges and nd here’s the uncomfortable truth:Giving someone money without giving them the ecosystem to succeed may only postpone failure.

What About Government Empowerment Programmes?Nigeria has launched numerous youth empowerment, skills and entrepreneurship programmes. Some have produced positive results, but concerns around implementation, sustainability, access to finance and political or administrative challenges have repeatedly emerged.

The bigger problem is how success is measured. Instead of celebrating: “100,000 youths trained,” we should ask: How many got jobs? How many businesses survived? How many jobs were created? How many businesses grew? A certificate is not a job, training programme is not automatically empowerment. Impact is what happens after the programme ends. So What Is the Real Solution?

We need a job-creation ecosystem, not an entrepreneurship slogan. That means: Skills + entrepreneurship + decent employment + affordable finance + infrastructure + industrial growth + supportive policies.Young Nigerians need opportunities to become entrepreneurs, but they also need functioning industries that can employ them.

For the young person with no capital?Don’t start by asking, “How much money do I need?” Start by asking:“What valuable problem can I solve?” Build a skill, solve a problem, find someone willing to pay, start small, reinvest, learn and grow. That is how many businesses begin.

The Bottom Line Nigeria does not need every young person to become a CEO.It needs an economy where every young person has a realistic pathway to productive work. Some will build businesses, some will work for businesses, some will create technologies, some will build factories whole others will become skilled professionals and all of them matter.

Entrepreneurship can help solve youth unemployment, but it cannot carry the entire burden.Nigeria doesn’t just need more people looking for jobs. It needs an economy capable of creating them.