African Youths and Anti-Corruption Movements: Transforming Politics and Business for a Transparent Future
Written by Racheal Akinloye; Edited by Andrew Ma
Published on March 10th, 2025
Introduction
African Youth, particularly Nigerians, are beginning to showcase a clear pattern of leading an Africa-wide revolutionary anti-corruption movement with the ultimate objective of giving the political and economic face of the continent a new look. Unlike the passive positions they occupied in the past, African youths are now taking charge as active change agents in anti-corruption movements by engaging the mechanism of technology innovation, expanded educational options, and greater political consciousness.
Digital Revolution and Youth-Led Transparency Initiatives
Protesters in Nigeria during the #ENDSARS Movement in 2020.
Credit: Reuters
Notably, the tone of anti-corruption efforts in Africa has been utterly revolutionized by young people's use of the internet and computers to demand accountability from their leaders. Using these tools, African youths have introduced unprecedented levels of accountability and openness in the public and corporate sectors through social media activism and creative digital platforms such as X space, and Zoom. In demonstrating this novel strategy of demanding accountability in governance, organizations such as BudgIT in Nigeria use digital technologies and data visualization to simplify complex government financial strategies and their implications to make them understandable to the general population. Their efforts have offered citizens the opportunity to follow up on public expenditure and hold elected officials responsible by constantly uploading yearly budgets and expenditures of the Nigerian government and its breakdown on their website. This highlights how civic participation and technology interrelate in the battle against corruption.
Social media has been experimented with by African youths in recent times as an instrument for organizing anti-corruption initiatives to demand change of attitude in key public sectors including the Police. An example of this is the #ENDSARS nationwide protest in Nigeria. In 2020, the protests, which began as a demonstration against police brutality against young people, evolved gradually through organised agitations on twitter and open supports from youths to become a clear demand for institutional change and openness across all sectors of governance in Nigeria, demonstrating how digital tools can be very potent and effective in organizing and coordinating protest groups and magnifying the voices of youths in Africa. Also in 2024, the #ENDBADGOVERNANCE protests, which took place in some major cities in Nigeria like Lagos, and Abuja, were actively championed by Nigerian youths, engaging the power of the internet to create a safe haven for protesters to strategize peaceful protest plans which eventually became successful public demonstrations to demand good governance from the Nigerian government at all tiers of operation, that is, federal, state, and local government. These movements’ ability to compel legislative reforms and government recognition demonstrated how effective digital activism can be in overthrowing, and cautioning long-standing corrupt structures such as the Nigerian police and elected public officers.
It is essential to note that the use of digital technology by African youths in demanding good governance has an impact that goes beyond just exposing corruption, but extends to bringing the electorates closer to the government in registering their dissatisfactions across areas of budgeting, public health, education, and infrastructural development. Young Africans have successfully shown how technology, when used appropriately, can close the divide between the populace and government, fostering a society that is more accountable and involved in governance through their involvement in decision making, and policy making. However, it is worth noting that the digital revolution is still nascent, and young people are continuously developing new ideas and innovations to encourage responsibility and openness in all spheres of society.
Youth Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics Transformation
A new generation of young entrepreneurs is driving the shift in corporate ethics in Africa by using creative and open company models to challenge long-standing unethical practices bordering on such areas as transparency. For instance, young entrepreneurs are transforming financial services in Nigeria’s emerging fin-tech industry by enforcing stringent compliance regulations and open operational protocols, featuring in the frequent use of decentralised blockchain technologies like cryptocurrency, and the establishment of internet banks like Opay, Palmpay to enhance transparency in bank transactions. Notably, these institutions have physical presence not only in Nigeria but in neighbouring countries like Ghana, and Kenya, further influencing the demand for transparency in these countries by providing a platform to do so. By using technology-driven transparency measures, young African entrepreneurs also actively alter the traditional business sector which was solely reliant on the cash economy. Youth-led firms in the agriculture industry are using blockchain technology to establish transparent supply chains, guarantee fair prices, and get rid of middlemen who frequently support unethical practices like lack of transparency and decline in accountability. In addition to increasing corporate efficiency, these technologies establish accountability systems that are advantageous to the consumers, financial services providers, and financial regulators. These initiatives have an impact that goes beyond specific organizations since they have a knock-on effect on entire industry sectors, forcing more established enterprises to follow suit in order to stay competitive by adopting technological driven models for making bank transactions based on its improved level of reliability.
Political Engagement and Systemic Change
Protestors in Ghana march for increased action from authorities against illegal small-scale gold mining (galamsey).
Across the African continent, the influence of youth political participation is most noticeable during elections. The use of digital technologies and social media platforms has afforded young people on the continent the opportunity to closely monitor the process of election in their respective countries; often they can record and report electoral anomalies in real-time, contributing to court cases that challenge the outcomes of fraudulent elections. For instance, the development and effective deployment of advanced election monitoring technology by youth-led organizations in Nigeria greatly increased transparency in the country’s recent elections by creating decentralised means of monitoring election results across the country through social media platforms like WhatsApp, and X (formerly Twitter). This role sends a clear message to potential election manipulators which may serve as deterrence from electoral fraud.
Conclusion
African youth are playing a significant role in advancing the frontiers of the fight against corruption in Africa, thereby contributing to the democratisation of the continent. This is seen in the active adoption of digital technologies in organizing protests that have successfully influenced the change of unfavorable and harsh government policies. Also, African youths have facilitated the course of entrepreneurship on the continent by utilizing decentralized technologies to control the financing and funding of projects. It is thus recommended that policymakers sustain these commendable initiatives by actively involving youth in policymaking and key financial decisions affecting their welfare.
