ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigeria’s population is well over 200 million. The African country’s median age is 18 — but 13.8% of young men and women are without formal education, employment or any form of job training.

This has made unemployment a compelling and dire issue requiring concerted efforts from both state and charities.

Victor Adeoti, 22, is heavily dependent on his parents for money. He also regularly bills his older sisters whenever he is out of money.

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“My parents are sponsoring me so whenever I am out of money,” he said. “I reach out to them as well as my older sisters who also live in [the Nigerian city of] Ilorin.”

With Nigeria’s unemployment rate at 43.9% and the inflation rate currently at 32%, Adeoti is not certain of being employed or becoming financially independent after graduation.

This fact induced Adeoti to begin praying and seeking alternative ways of financing himself. It was like divine providence, he recalled, when someone from his church introduced him to a faith-propelled skill-up initiative.

“When I joined Living Faith church in February 2023, our choir mistress in church told me that Global Foundation will be training youths and she will like me join them,” he said. “That was how I started, went for training with Global Foundation for two weeks and learned how to make liquid soap, chin-chin and others. Since I learnt these skills, I have been using it to make liquid soap and sell them in school.”

Adeoti said he makes 9,000 Nigerian nairas ($6.45 U.S.) each month selling the liquid soap he makes part time in school.

“I use the money to buy the instruments and materials I need for my course in school including school projects and other needs,” he added.

Tolu Disu, Founder of Youths United for God Global Foundation, told Religion Unplugged that the foundation did not start as a normal nonprofit organization but from random acts of kindness. “We will just go out to minister, share the love of God, food and clothes until we grew and established the campuses so we can provide tools, training and resources for those interested in learning these skills and trades,” Disu said.

Incorporated in 2019, Youth United for God Global Foundation has five campuses in Lagos, Ogun, Kwara, Enugu and Kaduna states, where youths are trained in cutting hair, solar energy installation, poultry farming, computer and ICT.

Disu said over 1,000 young people have been directly and positively impacted by the foundation since its inception. The training sessions are run every three months. In the summer months, the trainings run concurrently for 12 weeks across all campuses.

“We discovered that one of the barriers for youths was the amount of upfront money they had to pay to learn a skill or trade, so we provided the learning campuses so that hurdle is gone for those interested in learning,” Disu said.

Damilola Yusuf, 31, said he could not afford to pay for computer training even though he had interest in learning those skills.

“I learned how to operate (a) computer, including Microsoft office suite, graphics design and computer engineering, from Global Foundation,” he said.

Yusuf, now a corporal in the Nigerian army, said that after being trained by Youth United for God Global Foundation, he was issued a certificate that he used to secure his first job as a computer operator at a business center where he was paid 15,000 nairas ($12) each month.

“When I started, they were paying me 4,000 nairas ($3.03) but when they saw how useful my skills were, they increased my salary until God did it and I used the certificate from the Youth United for God Global Foundation training to process my current job in the Nigerian Army,” Yusuf said.

Disu, who created the foundation, noted that although the initiative is making an impact, there are still drawbacks that keep challenging its expansion and reach. Disu said that the state of Nigeria’s economy has left many youths scarred psychologically, leaving them uninterested in leveraging new skills.

According to Disu, this prevailing orientation among young people keeps them from taking advantage of free trainings because they have their mind set on only receiving money or financial handouts from the foundation.

“There is this kind of ‘all hope is lost’ mentality among the Nigerian youths. Because the government is not working, they believe there is no point in investing their time and energy in learning any skill or trade even if these trainings are offered for free,” Disu said. “They misinterpret our initiative as one that wants to give them money or solve all their problems in one day.”

Chinonso Kenneth is a writer based in Lagos, Nigeria.