Beyond Survival: How Nigerian youths are investing for the future amid inflation and AI revolution 

By Taiwo Ramat 

Nigeria’s economy is sending mixed signals right now and the youth have a role to play. On one hand, the Nigeria GDP as at 2025 was $290.79 billion, according to the World Bank, and on the other hand, the Nigeria once biggest Africa economy is now in the third place, behind South Africa and Egypt, mainly because the naira has lost so much value that the economy looks so small when measured in dollars.

These are the big numbers that economists and international organizations like the World Bank and IMF talk about. But there are smaller, personal stories of young Nigerians deciding what to do with money.

Following this report by The Lagos Voice, we can ascertain that 25 out of 30 Nigerian youths are saving or investing in something, whether it is crypto, shares on the stock market, small businesses or even contributions to thrift groups with nothing but determination.

Through a survey rolled out by The Lagos Voice to many Nigerian Youths, they expressed investment decisions in recent times. According to Wahab, most youth lack the orientation of investment, and the system also discourages the act of investing in the country. He believes many young Nigerians simply lack guidance on how to invest and Nigeria’s system also discourages the act of investing in the country.

The untold stories of the Nigerian youths who are quietly working towards a better future, even when they are not sure the system has their back. In everyday conversation, ‘investing’ usually means buying financial assets like stocks, bonds, or mutual funds. So why are young Nigerians investing at all? The point is clear: they want to grow their money. 18 out of 30 people surveyed said ‘wealth growth’,while 8 said they were doing it for extra income on the side. In simple terms, most youth are not investing because of long-term financial planning; they want money and they want it now.

Nigerian youths are investing out of structured financial planning and more from a desire to build wealth in the near term. In terms of investment channel, stocks and shares appears to be the most popular among Nigerian youth, personal business, crypto currency and thrift (Ajo) which is Nigeria’s traditional community saving system also means which investments are channeled.

This distribution suggests nothing but a diversified emerging asset class and spreading of money across several options. Is all of this a good thing for the economy? Does this trend benefit the broader economy?

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Although, 24 out of 30 described youth investment as ‘helping’ Nigeria’s economy. Personal investment adds to the economy but the contribution margin matters. A generation investing primarily for personal wealth accumulation, rather than long-term productivity capacity may be building financial resilience at the household level without necessarily translating into the kind of structural economic transformation that the country needs.

One important distinction is that youth investment can be genuinely towards economic positivity but it might fall short of its full potential if it remains informal, unstructured or disconnected from other sectors such as the manufacturing, agriculture and technology, that would generate broader employment and export value. In the actual sense, the real measure of impact may lie not in whether the youths are investing, but in where those investments are directed and whether the environment exists to channel it productively.

A 24 year old Akorede, an investor in crypto currency told The Lagos Voice that he does not trust the government or financial system to protect his investment, he argued that what he needs most is ‘Political stability and saner clime in security and other basic human protection.’ His comment reflects a wider pattern worth taking seriously; for him, insecurity and political uncertainty function almost like an invisible tax on investment, quietly discouraging further participation even among those already committed to the process.

Also, Oluwabusayomi, a 20 year old Nigerian student, who trusts the government to some extent, framed the same issue in more economic terms. “An investor always wants a return, so if the economy is favourable to whatever I am doing, I will invest more,” she told The Lagos Voice. 

Oluwabusayomi’s point is simple, Nigerian youth are not investing out of blind patriotism but weighing risk against reward; as any rational investor would behave. Their responses point to two sides of the same problem, it is not that young Nigerians lack the will to invest in their own economy but inconsistent economic conditions,political instability needs to be addressed.

Speaking to The Lagos Voice, Mr Rasaq, who represents a more established investor as he builds long term wealth for retirement by investing in mutual funds,thrift and treasury bills. Unlike some others, Mr Rasaq termed lack of accountability as the biggest obstacle he has faced, and admitted to having lost money to scam despite his experience. He then mentioned that ‘economic stability’ as well as ‘reduction in corruption’ are basic factors that would encourage him to invest more.

Regardless of the challenges that come with investing as a Nigerian youth, it has not discouraged many from doing more. A self-employed Isaac who lost money to scam, argued that ‘for an economy to develop externally, it first has to grow internally’, pointing to youth-led businesses as one of the paths toward internal economic growth. Rather than pulling back, he said he wants to go into the Nigerian Stock Exchange Market, also in treasury bills and bonds and likewise in start-ups, an expansion not retreat.

Fodlulah, another self-employed youth admitted to The Lagos Voice that his lack of investment knowledge contributed to his loss, still point to visible signs of progress as reason for optimism; “more youths are attaining financial literacy, which is why banks like Zenith Bank are crossing their all-time high revenue and majority of these people are youth,” he mentioned.

That same resilience carries an ambition of its own indicating a clear picture of where Nigerian youths want their money to go next. When asked to look five years ahead, they were notably specific about where they see the Nigerian economy heading and where they want to be positioned within it. Agriculture and Oil & gas drew most interest, Real estate, Finance, Capital market, Tourism, Agritech and Fashion were the choice of the Nigerian youths.

Ogunbanwo Abiodun, a self employed respondent, who currently invested in personal business and real estate was more specific with his future investment selection. Abiodun named Oil & Gas as the future of his investment, his choice positioned him as one of the optimistic voices on youth investment. He believed that youth-led businesses are most likely going to structure themselves around emerging trends like artificial intelligence, because young entrepreneurs understand the trend at which the world is evolving better than older and established players.

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Mahmud Tijani, who has never lost money to scam, offered one of the more grounded ambitions in the survey. Within Five years, Mahmud simply wants to be a ‘shareholder’, a modest and specific goal. He also shared his piece on Nigeria’s investment, “to see trustworthy staff is harder than anything you can imagine”, he said, pointing to a layer of distrust that runs deeper than government policy, down to the people running the institutions and platforms young investors rely on.

Both Mahmud and Abiodun represent two complementary versions of youth ambition. One is cautious and incremental, the other is structural and trend aware. They both expressed trust in Nigeria’s financial system and also pitched a reminder that confidence and caution are not mutually exclusive among young investors in Nigeria.

“Most youth lack the orientation of investment”, Damilola Wahab told The Lagos Voice. In his own opinion, Damilola viewed that certain investment decisions among the youth hurt Nigeria’s economy.

Also, he added that the system also does not encourage the act of investing in the country’s economy. For him, the problem is two failures reinforcing each other; a system that offers little encouragement. And yet, notably, even he continues to invest, hoping, in his own words, to keep making headways.

Nigerian youth are already showing up; investing, saving, starting businesses and diversifying across all forms of financial instruments, despite limited income and real financial losses. Barriers like inconsistent policy, multiple taxation and gaps in financial literacy reflect shared responsibilities between the youth and the Nigerian government. Whichever side moves first, Nigeria’s future lies with the youth.