The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Northwest Development Commission (NWDC), Prof. Shehu Ma’aji, says the Northwest region is not declining.
He noted that the region is undergoing a transition powered by the resilience and potential of its youths.
Ma’aji stated this on Saturday in Kaduna at the Northwest Youth Summit 2026 with the theme “From state action to regional impact”, organized by Bridge Connect Africa Initiative.
The summit was supported by the Nigeria Youth Futures Fund, Youth Leading Change Programme, among others.
Ma’aji said the region was confronting genuine development challenges but remained on the threshold of transformation driven by its young population.
Ma’aji noted that youths across Nigeria had demonstrated leadership in governance reforms, entrepreneurship, innovation and community development.
According to him, young people no longer wait for opportunities but create solutions and drive change within their communities.
He said the region’s development challenges included out-of-school children, unemployment, insecurity, poverty and limited access to basic services.
The managing director stressed that youths required coordination, policy support and strategic investments rather than motivation.
He urged state governments to make measurable commitments toward youth development and ensure adequate budgetary support for youth-focused programmes.
Ma’aji said the commission would establish a mechanism to monitor commitments made during the summit.
Earlier, the Executive Director of Bridge Connect Africa Initiative, Mr Sani Muhammad, said the summit marked the culmination of the Youth Leading Change Programme implemented across Northwest Nigeria.
Muhammad said the programme invested in strengthening youth leadership, supporting youth-led organizations and promoting collaboration between young people and public institutions.
He said 35 fellows were equipped with practical skills in civic engagement, policy advocacy, stakeholder coordination and democratic participation.
According to him, the programme also strengthened 21 youth-led organizations to advance governance and youth development priorities across the region.
Muhammad said youth policy dialogue workshops held in Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara states identified implementation gaps and practical pathways for action.
He explained that the summit brought together young people, government institutions, civil society groups, development partners and community stakeholders around a shared development agenda.
The executive director said discussions at the summit were centred on the Northwest Youth Policy Agenda developed through consultations across the seven states.
He said the agenda reflected shared priorities, outlined implementation pathways and provided a framework for stronger regional coordination.
Muhammad noted that the initiative demonstrated the value of engaging young people as partners in governance and development.
He said youths involved in the programme had shown remarkable capacity to contribute through policy conversations, community initiatives and accountability processes.
According to him, creating spaces for collaboration between government institutions and young people remained critical to achieving sustainable development outcomes.
“The success of this summit will be measured not by discussions alone but by our ability to translate commitments into tangible outcomes for young people,” he said.
Also speaking, the Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, commended the summit for promoting coordinated youth development across the region.
Olawande, represented by Mr Despan Kwardem, the Director Education and Youth Development at the ministry, described the initiative as a model capable of strengthening collaboration and increasing the impact of youth-focused interventions.
The Kaduna State Commissioner for Youth Development, Gloria Ibrahim, described the summit as a defining moment for the Northwest.
She said the region possessed enormous youth potential that must be harnessed for sustainable development and national progress.
Ibrahim noted that state-level dialogues had laid the foundation for a regional youth policy agenda to strengthen collaboration and accountability across the Northwest.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the high point of the event was the launch of the Northwest youth policy agenda.
It was developed by Bridge Connect Africa Initiative under the Youth Leading Change Program (YLCP), with support from the Nigeria Youth Futures Fund.
It is a regional framework for advancing youth policy development, adoption, implementation, and coordination across Northwest Nigeria
NAN also reports that participants at the event cut across youth leaders and representatives, government officials from MDAs and private organizations, among other works of life from the Northwest region.(NAN)
