BY ONOME AMUGE
Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and home to the largest number of youths in the world. A 2021 World Bank report, in its assessment of the country’s high youth populace, stated that 74 percent global growth of youth population aged 18-23 will be largely situated in Nigeria and nine other countries including; the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Niger, Pakistan,Uganda, and Tanzania by 2030.
According to the World Bank, Nigeria’s demographic landscape has over the years seen a significant surge in adolescent and youth population.
Though 53.77 percent of the total population were rated between the ages of 15 and 64, a 2020 Statista demographic analysis of Nigeria showed that millennials or Gen Y (people born between 1981 to 1996); and Gen Z (people born between 1997-2012), collectively represent 50.9 percent of the total population with the Gen Z populace accounting for 31.8 percent, compared to 19.1 percent for the millennial populace.
With the Nigerian population accelerating towards a Gen-Z-centric demographic, the consumption trend and spending lifestyle of this group is fast becoming a major area of focus for business organisations across all sectors. The peculiarities of this population and the vast opportunities they present to businesses across the country cannot be overemphasised.
Consequently, Nigeria’s social media presence has over time, enjoyed a huge patronage with statistics gleaned from Global Web Index (GWI) showing that the country has the highest social media addiction rate in Africa, with an average of three hours of 42 minutes spent on social networks daily.
Being a generation with a heavy online presence and identity like never before, the Nigerian Gen-Z populace have not only dominated social media trends, but have consequently monetised the social media platforms and their huge presence has channelled opportunities for business brands to explore, leveraging on the business potentials of Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram, Linkedin, Tiktok, Snapchat, Nigeria’s most popular social media platforms.
Another major attribute of the Gen-Z generation which businesses can explore is their relationship with money and their rising addiction to mobile-driven payment methods. With mobile wallets gaining traction in Nigeria, supported by the major telecoms providers who have offered similar digital payments solutions, the Gen Z populace in the country are gradually focusing their spending habits and consumptions on digital payment platforms and e-commerce businesses to traditional markets.
The paradigm shift in the consumer behaviour of this generation has created the need for businesses in the country to adopt and offer transaction channels that gratifies their spending habits.
Thunes, a business-to-business (B2B) cross border payments network, in its recent research finding across 13 developed and emerging countries, including Nigeria, advised consumer brands, payment platforms and payment providers to capitalise on the Gen-Z populace and put into cognisance their online spending habits which was found to be influenced largely by their social circles, brand engagement online, as well as trendy, convenient and trustworthy payment options.
It was further deduced that social media consumption and rising online bill payment platforms play significant roles in driving shopping habits and spending activities of the Gen-Z demographic, creating profitable ventures for innovative business organisations to explore.
