Creating 1 million tech-sector jobs for young people in Lagos State, Nigeria
The Big Win:
The governor of Lagos State, Nigeria has set an ambitious goal of making the state the Silicon Valley of Africa. He is doubling down on Lagos’ competitive advantage in the tech sector to create 1 million jobs for young people.
The state government has partnered with Big Win to put its youth-employment plan into action—and leverage tech-sector growth to help achieve its broader goal of reducing the unemployment rate from 37.1% to a single digit.
1 million jobs for young people to be created in five years
37.1% unemployment rate to be reduced to a single digit
The Partnership
Big Win has committed to a 16-month package of support, launched in 2022, which is focused on four areas central to achieving the state government’s goal. Over this period, interventions supported by Big Win will create more than 50,000 quality jobs for young people in the tech sector—while paving the way to creating over 1 million jobs in five years.1. Closing the information gap
Big Win is supporting the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) to strengthen its comprehensive tech ecosystem platform and support evidence-driven decision making. We are conducting a rapid assessment of the Lagos tech ecosystem and gathering baseline data on tech businesses in the state. We are also reviewing the existing platform to identify gaps and expand the scope of information captured.
2. Unlocking tech talent
Tech talent is highly sought-after in Lagos and the tech sector is attracting young people from across the country. Big Win is supporting LSETF to improve the delivery of skills training and facilitate the access of young talent to training programs. This includes helping LSETF to identify existing, high-impact tech talent training centers and map and close their capacity gaps. We are also providing partial grant funding to enable young people to access training, following a student loan model to ensure the program’s sustainability.
3. Tracking progress and improving performance management
The governor recently put a platform in place to track and monitor the progress of key government initiatives—the Digital Cabinet. LSETF is working closely with Big Win to broaden the Digital Cabinet’s functionality to include a tech-sector module with actionable indicators and to develop dynamic, customized dashboards that can be used for both programming and decision-making. Big Win is supporting the design of the performance management dashboards, as well as expanding the government’s capacity to collect, map, and use data and insights from the dashboards to inform evidence-based decisions and policymaking.
4. Enhancing the government’s implementation capacity
Big Win is providing key technical support to the office of the Executive Secretary of the LSETF, Tejumola Abisoye, to help the fund achieve its ambition to become a key player in driving the growth of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) across the traditional and tech sectors. Our support is geared towards building capacity within the LSETF—and amongst the team supporting the Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget—which will enable them to reach more than one million businesses and support their growth within 12 months. We will help them to track progress against their targets and collect and analyze data to support course correction, accountability, and resource mobilization.
Across these four areas, Big Win is collaborating closely with the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who has made the development of the tech sector a cornerstone of his economic recovery blueprint—the THEMES Agenda. We are also working closely with Tejumola Abisoye, Executive Secretary of the LSETF. Since its establishment in 2016, the LSETF has created more than 300,000 direct and indirect jobs and supported more than 80,000 entrepreneurs through its programs. Ms. Abisoye’s impressive track record in public service and her bold vision for the future of the fund led to her selection for the Amujae Initiative, a prestigious leadership development program launched by the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development and co-conceived by Big Win.