On Monday, August 12, 2024, the world took a moment to spotlight its greatest asset—the over 1.2 billion youth and their role in advancing global development.
This year’s theme, “From Clicks to Progress: Youth Digital Pathways for Sustainable Development,” recognises that without youth-led innovative solutions, the efforts to meet global goals for peaceful, fair, and inclusive societies will yield little gains.
With this global theme comes the local concern: “How do we address the situation when many youths remain disconnected from the internet, particularly in developing countries?”
At the global level, digital innovations have reshaped every facet of corporate and public life, bringing with it new opportunities for communities and livelihoods.
Across countries, the level of digital access and utilisation among their youth, the digital natives, could influence their development.
Yet there are disparities in digital adoption rates between youths in advanced economies and those in developing countries.
Clicks: Digital Barriers
In Nigeria, the number of internet users aged 15+ has risen over the past 25 years. Yet, only 36% of those within this age group had access to the internet as of 2022.
Internet usage is often linked to a country’s level of development because of its ability to drive novel and innovative solutions to global challenges and boost growth through exposure to digital technologies and information.
Increasing use of digital technologies and the adoption of artificial intelligence could hasten progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, limited internet access and scant ICT infrastructure can hinder young people from exploring emerging opportunities in digital technologies.
According to the IMF’s AI Preparedness Index, Nigeria’s digital infrastructure and regulations do not match up with the capacity of its human capital and innovation.
This informs why the country lags behind, with other Sub-Saharan African countries, with an index score of 0.34, one of the lowest in the world, and below the world average of 0.47.
Globally, a major digital infrastructure challenge is internet connectivity. About 2.6 billion people, or 33% of the world’s population, are unconnected to the internet as of 2023.
In the same period, 93% of people in high-income countries had internet access, compared to just 27% in low-income countries, a slight increase from 24% in 2022. This gap in digital penetration highlights the significant digital divide between high-income and low-income countries and regions.