A quiet revolution is being seeded within Nigeria’s educational landscape, and its architects believe the most crucial agents of change are not policymakers or tech giants, but classroom teachers. In a strategic move to reshape the country’s economic future, Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN) is mobilizing a national coalition with a clear objective: to fundamentally reposition educators as the primary catalysts for entrepreneurship.
Dubbed the SET4LYF National Convening, the initiative—which stands for School-to-Work Educational Transitions for Long-Term Youth Fulfilment—is more than a conference. It is the cornerstone of a long-term advocacy campaign designed to embed an entrepreneurial mindset into the very fabric of secondary education.
Shifting the Focus from Students to Educators
While many youth programs target students directly, SET4LYF adopts a more systemic approach. The convening, scheduled for November 6th, 2025, will specifically assemble teachers, school administrators, and sector stakeholders. The core premise is that to transform how students “think, create, and lead,” you must first equip their mentors with the tools, mindset, and institutional support to guide them.
“For anything to thrive, it needs the right environment. We need the support of the government in this,” stated Mr. Olaolu Akogun, Country Director for the initiative, during a virtual media briefing. This underscores a central pillar of the strategy: that sustainable change requires top-down policy alignment alongside bottom-up empowerment.
Inclusion as an Engine of Innovation
The program is deliberately engineered for equity. Its goal to reach 31 states includes specific quotas: 10% of participants will be girls from internally displaced communities, and 5% will be girls with disabilities. This is not an afterthought but a core operational principle.
“We want to be inclusive, bridging the gap with this program. Inclusion is very important to us,” Akogun emphasized. This focus ensures that the drive for entrepreneurship taps into the vast, often overlooked potential within Nigeria’s most marginalized communities, turning vulnerability into economic agency.
Building a Coalition for a Self-Reliant Future
The SET4LYF Convening represents a critical step in a larger advocacy movement. By bringing together government agencies, private sector partners, and NGOs, JAN is building a multi-stakeholder consensus. The aim is to create a unified front that can institutionalize entrepreneurship education, moving it from scattered extracurricular projects to a integrated component of national learning.
This initiative recognizes that in an era of rapid technological change and economic uncertainty, the greatest gift for the next generation is not just knowledge, but the ability to create opportunity for themselves. By empowering their teachers, Nigeria is not merely teaching business skills; it is investing in a future built on innovation, self-reliance, and resilient leadership.
