The air in Yaba, a suburb on the Lagos mainland, is thick with more than just the humid tropical heat and the incessant thrum of generators. It is charged with a kinetic energy, a relentless forward momentum that feels almost tangible. Here, in the district nicknamed “Yabacon Valley,” young coders huddle over laptops in air-conditioned hubs, venture capitalists from across the globe scout for the next billion-dollar idea, and the controlled chaos of motorcycle taxis weaving through traffic serves as a constant, humming metaphor for the nation itself: a powerhouse of human capital, brimming with potential yet constrained by its environment. This is the frontline of the Nigerian dream, a vision being coded, filmed, sung, and built into existence by the most formidable force on the African continent: its youth.
Nigeria is not merely a country; it is a demographic event of global significance. As of 2024, it is home to an estimated 232.7 million people, making it Africa’s most populous nation and the sixth-largest in the world. Projections show this figure swelling to over 245 million by 2027. But the raw number, staggering as it is, tells only part of the story. The defining characteristic of Nigeria is its youth. Approximately 70% of its population is under the age of 30, and a staggering 85.7% is under 44. This demographic structure presents the nation with its greatest opportunity and its most profound challenge. It is a dividend on the brink, a vast reservoir of human energy that could either propel Nigeria to unprecedented heights or, if left untapped and frustrated, become a source of immense instability.
The future of Nigeria, and by extension a significant part of Africa, hinges on its ability to harness this youthful dynamism. The stakes are monumental. On one hand, this generation is already fueling a creative and digital economic revolution, decoupling the nation’s fortunes from its long-standing dependence on crude oil. Their ingenuity is broadcast globally through the vibrant narratives of Nollywood and the infectious rhythms of Afrobeats, and it is powering a fintech ecosystem that is reshaping continental finance. On the other hand, this same generation exerts immense pressure on a system grappling with deep-seated structural frailties. In 2022, UNESCO reported that approximately 20 million Nigerian children were out of school, one of the highest figures globally, creating a formidable barrier to future prosperity. While official youth unemployment figures have shown recent improvement, the lived experience for many is one of precariousness and underemployment, a reality that has previously boiled over into mass social movements. The Nigerian dream, therefore, is not a gentle unfolding. It is being actively, and at times fiercely, forged in the crucible of these competing realities.
Table 1: Nigeria at a Glance (2023-2025 Data & Projections)
| Indicator | Value | |
| Population (2024 est.) | ~232.7 million | |
| Population Under 30 | ~70% | |
| Real GDP Growth (2025 proj.) | 3.4% | |
| GDP Contribution by Sector (Q2 2024) | Services: 58.76%, Non-Oil Sector: 94.30% | |
| Youth Unemployment Rate (15-24, Q2 2024) | 6.5% | |
| Life Expectancy (2023) | 54.46 years | |
| Under-Five Mortality Rate (2022 est.) | 105 per 1,000 live births |
The New Economy – Forged Beyond Oil
For decades, the story of the Nigerian economy was written in barrels of crude oil. Its fortunes rose and fell with the volatile swings of global energy markets, creating a dependency that fostered corruption and stunted broad-based development. Today, a new story is being written, not in the oil-rich swamps of the Niger Delta, but in the bustling tech hubs, film studios, and factory floors across the nation. This new economy is more diverse, more resilient, and overwhelmingly driven by the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit of a generation determined to build a future beyond oil. The services sector, which now drives the economy, contributed 58.76% to the aggregate GDP in the second quarter of 2024, while the non-oil sector as a whole accounted for a dominant 94.30% of the nation’s GDP, signaling a fundamental structural shift.
The Rise of Yabacon Valley: A Digital Declaration of Independence
The most potent symbol of this economic transformation is found in Yaba, Lagos. What was once a quiet suburb has, over the past decade, morphed into “Yabacon Valley,” a vibrant ecosystem of startups, incubators, and venture capitalists that stands as Nigeria’s answer to Silicon Valley. Its genesis was not the result of a top-down government decree but an organic convergence of critical elements. The proximity to a deep talent pool from the nearby University of Lagos and Yaba College of Technology provided the human capital. The arrival of a high-speed fiber optic cable laid by MainOne in the early 2010s provided the essential digital infrastructure, the fuel for a modern tech economy. And the establishment of pioneering incubators, most notably the Co-Creation Hub (CcHub) in 2011, provided the collaborative space where ideas could be nurtured into viable businesses.
This confluence of factors created a flywheel effect. The ecosystem, now estimated to host between 400 and 700 startups with a collective valuation exceeding $2 billion, has become a beacon for international investment. Early successes drew global attention. In 2016, Andela, a talent accelerator for software developers founded in Yaba, received a landmark $24 million investment from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, signaling that Nigerian tech was a serious global contender. Soon, global giants like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook (now Meta) were hosting events and training programs, further embedding Yaba into the global tech landscape and providing local talent with world-class skills and connections.
Nowhere has this digital dynamism been more impactful than in financial technology. Nigeria has become the undisputed fintech capital of Africa, home to four of the continent’s “unicorns”—private companies valued at over $1 billion: Flutterwave, OPay, Interswitch, and Moniepoint. The story of Flutterwave is particularly illustrative. Founded in 2016 by a team of ex-bankers and engineers, it set out to solve one of Africa’s most complex problems: fragmented payment systems. By creating a single, unified API, Flutterwave allows businesses to accept payments from across the continent and around the world, a crucial piece of infrastructure for the digital age. By early 2022, the company had raised $250 million in a funding round that valued it at over $3 billion, making it the highest-valued African startup at the time. Its platform now processes billions of dollars in transactions for over 900,000 businesses, including global giants like Uber and Booking.com, demonstrating how Nigerian innovation can provide solutions for the entire continent. This success was preceded by another watershed moment in 2020, when US payments giant Stripe acquired Lagos-based Paystack for a reported $200 million, a move that sent a clear signal to the world: Nigerian tech was not just a local phenomenon, but a globally significant and valuable asset class.
Nollywood and Afrobeats: Nigeria’s Global Soundtrack
Parallel to the rise of its digital economy, Nigeria has solidified its position as a global cultural superpower. Its creative industries, led by the prolific Nollywood film industry and the worldwide explosion of the Afrobeats music genre, are no longer just sources of national pride but have become formidable economic engines and potent instruments of soft power. This creative sector is a major contributor to the country’s economic diversification, demonstrating how cultural capital can be converted into tangible economic growth.
The sheer scale of Nollywood is astounding. Producing around 2,500 films annually, it is the world’s second-largest film industry by output, surpassed only by India’s Bollywood. This immense creative output translates into significant economic value. In 2023, the sectors encompassing motion pictures, sound recording, and music production contributed approximately ₦1.97 trillion (around $1.4 billion) to Nigeria’s GDP. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), this contribution reached a high of ₦728.80 billion in the first quarter of 2024 alone, part of a decade-long growth trend that has seen the sector’s economic input expand by over 150%. The entire entertainment and media market was valued at $9 billion in 2023 and is projected by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to grow to $13.6 billion by 2028, a testament to its sustained dynamism. Crucially, this industry is a massive employer, providing livelihoods for over 4.2 million people, with projections to add another 2.6 million jobs by 2025.
The global ascent of Afrobeats has been even more meteoric. Artists like Burna Boy, Wizkid, and Davido have transcended their local origins to become global icons, selling out arenas from Madison Square Garden to the O2 Arena and winning Grammy awards. This cultural phenomenon has been amplified by the rise of global streaming platforms. Spotify data reveals the explosive growth: Afrobeats streams on its platform soared from 2 billion in 2017 to over 13.5 billion by 2022. These platforms, along with others like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video for Nollywood, have provided a direct conduit to a global audience, bypassing traditional distribution gatekeepers and allowing Nigerian creators to monetize their work on an unprecedented scale. Netflix, for instance, disclosed that it had invested over $23 million in the Nigerian film industry over a seven-year period, an investment that supported over 5,140 jobs and contributed $39 million to the Nigerian GDP.
The synergy between Nigeria’s digital and creative economies is not a coincidence; it is a deeply interconnected and self-reinforcing cycle. The fintech platforms born in Yabacon Valley provide the essential payment infrastructure that allows the creator economy to thrive. They enable artists to sell merchandise globally, fans to purchase tickets for concerts, and streaming services to operate their subscription models within Nigeria. This digital ecosystem empowers a new generation of creators to build global fanbases and revenue streams independently. In turn, the immense global appeal of Afrobeats and Nollywood drives more users onto these digital platforms, strengthening the fintech ecosystem and creating a virtuous cycle. This combined force is forging a new type of non-oil export for Nigeria—one based not on finite physical commodities, but on the infinitely scalable products of culture and technology. It is a more resilient, more sustainable, and more inspiring foundation for the nation’s economic future.
The “Made in Nigeria” Renaissance: From Assembly to Creation
For years, the Nigerian dream for many consumers was an imported one—a German car, a Swiss watch, an American film. A powerful counter-narrative is now taking hold, driven by a new generation of industrialists and a government push towards self-reliance. The “Made in Nigeria” and “Nigeria First” policies are not just slogans; they represent a strategic shift aimed at boosting local manufacturing, reducing import dependency, and fostering a sense of national pride in homegrown products. This renaissance is most visible in the ambitious projects of industrial titans and pioneering entrepreneurs who are proving that Nigeria can not only consume but also create.
No figure looms larger in this landscape than Aliko Dangote. His journey from a young man who started a trading firm in 1977 with a $3,000 loan from his uncle to becoming Africa’s wealthiest individual is a testament to an audacious vision. While his early success came from importing commodities like cement and sugar, his lasting legacy is being built on a strategic pivot to large-scale domestic manufacturing. The Dangote Group is now a West African conglomerate, with Dangote Cement being the largest manufacturer on the continent. His most transformative project, however, is the recently commissioned $20-billion Dangote Petroleum Refinery. With a massive capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, the refinery is a private-sector solution to one of Nigeria’s most glaring public-sector failures: its inability to refine its own crude oil, which has forced the nation to spend billions on fuel imports for decades. The refinery is poised to make Nigeria a net exporter of petroleum products, a game-changing development for its economy and energy security.
If Dangote represents industrial might at a colossal scale, then Innocent Chukwuma and his Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing (IVM) represent the spirit of homegrown ingenuity. Nicknamed the “Pride of African Roads,” IVM is Nigeria’s first indigenous automobile manufacturer, a powerful symbol of industrial ambition. Chukwuma’s story began not in a boardroom but in the bustling spare parts markets of Nnewi, a town known as the “Japan of Africa” for its manufacturing spirit. He spotted an opportunity to move from trading parts to assembling motorcycles, and eventually, to manufacturing cars. Commissioned in 2010, the IVM plant produces vehicles specifically designed for rugged Nigerian road conditions—durable, affordable, and with readily available parts. Critically, the company states that over 70% of its car components are produced locally, creating a domestic value chain and transferring vital skills. IVM’s success has earned it the trust of key national institutions, with the Nigerian Army, Police, and several state governments purchasing fleets of its vehicles, a significant endorsement of local manufacturing. Looking to the future, IVM unveiled Nigeria’s first locally made electric vehicle in September 2024, demonstrating a commitment to keeping pace with global automotive trends.
The rise of these industrial ventures reveals a critical pattern in Nigeria’s development. Progress is often a reaction to systemic failure and economic volatility. Dangote built his refinery because the state-owned ones were left to rust. Similarly, entrepreneur Oluwatobi Ajayi was spurred to create Nord Automobiles, another indigenous car brand, after the Nigerian naira collapsed in 2016, making imported vehicles unaffordable for the middle class. These entrepreneurs are not just building businesses; they are building solutions where the state has failed or where economic crises have created new imperatives. This makes the private sector remarkably resilient, but it also underscores the challenges of building in an environment of instability. The “Renewed Hope” of the nation is thus being forged not just by government plans, but by the tenacity of industrialists who build businesses
despite and because of the country’s systemic dysfunctions.
The Promise and Peril of Nigeria’s Youth
Nigeria’s vast youth population is the central character in its national story. This generation is digitally native, globally connected, and possesses an irrepressible entrepreneurial drive. They are the architects of the new economy and the wellspring of the nation’s creative energy. Yet, they are also the demographic most acutely affected by the country’s persistent challenges: a lack of quality jobs, inadequate educational opportunities, and a governance system they often feel is unresponsive to their needs. This duality—of immense promise and profound peril—defines the experience of being young in Nigeria today.
The #EndSARS Generation: A Voice Awakened
In October 2020, this simmering tension erupted onto the world stage. The #EndSARS protests, which began as a social media campaign against the notorious and brutal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), morphed into the largest youth-led movement in Nigeria’s modern history. For nearly two weeks, young people peacefully occupied streets in cities across the country, their decentralized and leaderless movement unified by a common cry for an end to police brutality and, more broadly, for good governance and accountability. It was a watershed moment, shattering the long-held myth that Nigerian youth were politically apathetic and marking the political awakening of a generation.
The movement was a masterclass in 21st-century activism. It was organized and sustained through the sophisticated use of digital tools that bypassed traditional power structures. Twitter was the central nervous system, where the hashtag #EndSARS garnered over 28 million tweets, mobilizing protesters and drawing global attention. The movement’s logistical needs—from food and water to private security and legal aid for arrested protesters—were funded through online crowdfunding, utilizing the very fintech platforms built by their peers and even cryptocurrency to ensure transparency and circumvent potential government blockades on bank accounts. This demonstrated an unprecedented capacity for self-organization, proving that this generation possessed the skills to build and manage complex, nationwide operations with entrepreneurial efficiency.
While the protests ended tragically with the shooting of peaceful demonstrators at the Lekki toll gate on October 20, 2020, their impact endures. The immediate demand—the disbandment of SARS—was met, though many viewed the creation of a replacement unit as a superficial change. The true legacy of #EndSARS, however, is not a specific policy victory but the fundamental shift in the nation’s political consciousness. The protests instilled in a generation a profound awareness of their collective power and their right to demand accountability from those in power. Studies have shown a significant positive correlation between the protests and heightened political activism and engagement among young Nigerians. The #EndSARS generation now represents a formidable and mobilized constituency, one whose demand for a more just and equitable society continues to echo through the country’s political discourse.
Architects of the Future: Profiles in Tenacity
The same spirit of ingenuity and problem-solving that defined the #EndSARS movement is evident in the work of countless young Nigerian entrepreneurs. They are not waiting for the government to solve the country’s most intractable problems; they are building the solutions themselves, creating businesses that tackle critical gaps in healthcare, finance, and industry. Their stories are the most tangible evidence of Nigeria’s hope.
Temie Giwa-Tubosun (LifeBank) – Solving a Matter of Life and Death. Temie Giwa-Tubosun’s mission was born from a moment of personal crisis. A difficult childbirth left her and her newborn son requiring intensive care, and their survival was dependent on access to life-saving blood. The experience was a stark reminder that for many women in Nigeria, where the maternal mortality ratio is tragically high at 1,047 deaths per 100,000 live births, such access is a luxury. Haunted by this reality, she founded LifeBank in 2016 with a clear and urgent purpose: to solve the critical logistics of getting blood and other essential medical products to hospitals quickly and safely. LifeBank is a direct response to a fundamental failure in the public health infrastructure. Using a tech platform to manage inventory and a multi-modal delivery fleet of motorcycles, boats, and even drones, the company can deliver blood to any hospital in its service area within 55 minutes, 24/7. In doing so, LifeBank has saved thousands of lives, demonstrating how youth-led innovation can provide life-or-death solutions where traditional systems have failed.
Oluwatobi Ajayi (Nord Automobiles) – Driving a National Dream. Oluwatobi Ajayi’s entrepreneurial journey began with what he called a “fantasy”: to start a Nigerian car brand. A former executive at Mercedes-Benz, his fantasy became a viable business plan in the wake of the 2016 currency crisis, which made imported vehicles prohibitively expensive for most Nigerians. Seizing the opportunity created by this economic shock and enabled by the government’s Automotive Industry Development Plan, he founded Nord Automobiles. The path was fraught with challenges. Ajayi financed the initial design and prototyping with his own money, pushing his company to the brink of bankruptcy before securing crucial seed funding. He also had to contend with a deep-seated consumer bias for foreign brands. Yet, by focusing on producing affordable, durable vehicles tailored for the Nigerian market, Nord has begun to win over consumers, offering brand-new pickups at prices comparable to five-year-old imported models. Ajayi’s story is a powerful testament to the “Made in Nigeria” ambition, proving that with resilience, local entrepreneurs can compete in even the most capital-intensive industries.
Odunayo Eweniyi (PiggyVest) – Digitizing Savings for a Generation. A first-class computer engineering graduate, Odunayo Eweniyi is a leading figure in Nigeria’s fintech revolution. In 2016, she and her co-founders were inspired by a viral tweet about a woman saving money in a traditional wooden piggy bank. They recognized the power of this simple savings discipline and decided to digitize it. The result was PiggyVest, a platform that allows users to automate their savings and make micro-investments with ease. The platform has been a phenomenal success, transforming the savings culture for millions of young Nigerians and now serving over 5 million users. PiggyVest has become a vital tool for financial literacy and inclusion. Eweniyi’s influence, however, extends beyond fintech. She is also a co-founder of the Feminist Coalition, an advocacy group that played a pivotal organizing and fundraising role during the #EndSARS protests, and FirstCheck Africa, an angel fund dedicated to investing in women-led startups across the continent.
These profiles reveal a deeper truth about Nigeria’s youth: the line between entrepreneurship and activism is increasingly blurred. For this generation, building a company to solve a problem that the state has failed to address—be it healthcare logistics, financial inclusion, or industrial development—is itself a form of political action. It is a constructive, solutions-oriented protest against the status quo. This redefines the nature of hope in Nigeria. It is not a passive wish for better governance, but the active, daily work of building parallel systems that are more efficient, more inclusive, and more responsive to the needs of the people.
This context also helps to explain a seeming paradox in the country’s official statistics. The National Bureau of Statistics reported that the youth unemployment rate for ages 15-24 fell to a record low of 6.5% in the second quarter of 2024, a dramatic improvement from a high of 53.4% in 2020. However, this headline figure, based on a new methodology, belies a more complex reality. The same report indicates that 85.6% of the workforce is self-employed, 93% operates in the informal sector, and the youth underemployment rate stands at a high 13.2%. This discrepancy explains why, despite a statistically lower unemployment rate, the underlying economic precarity and frustration that fueled movements like #EndSARS persist. The “jobs” being created are often informal, unstable, and low-paying. While the entrepreneurial hustle is a sign of immense resilience, the lack of quality, formal-sector employment remains the core challenge for Nigeria’s demographic dividend.
The National Blueprint – Charting the Course
While Nigeria’s private sector and its youth forge ahead with relentless energy, the government is not standing still. A series of ambitious national plans and agendas have been put forth, articulating a vision for a more prosperous and stable future. These blueprints acknowledge the central role of economic diversification and private-sector leadership, aiming to create an environment where the nation’s immense human potential can be fully realized. The critical question, however, is whether these top-down strategies can keep pace with, and effectively enable, the bottom-up dynamism already reshaping the country.
The “Renewed Hope Agenda”: A New Social Contract?
The administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which took office in 2023, has anchored its vision in the “Renewed Hope Agenda.” This framework is structured around Eight Presidential Priority Areas designed to tackle the nation’s most pressing challenges between 2023 and 2027. The pillars of this agenda are comprehensive, including reforming the economy for sustained inclusive growth, strengthening national security, boosting agriculture to achieve food security, unlocking energy and natural resources, enhancing infrastructure, and investing in human capital through education and health.
At its core, the agenda can be interpreted as an attempt to forge a new social contract with the Nigerian people, particularly the youth. It explicitly promises to “build a Nigeria… especially for our youth, where sufficient jobs with decent wages create a better life”. Its priorities show a clear alignment with the emerging strengths of the new economy, with a specific focus on accelerating diversification through “industrialization, digitization, creative arts, manufacturing & innovation”. Furthermore, the emphasis on bolstering security—through enhanced recruitment, improved technology for military and police forces, and the protection of vital national infrastructure—is a direct acknowledgment that economic progress is impossible without peace and stability. It is a recognition that farmers cannot plant in fear, and investors will not commit capital in a climate of insecurity.
The National Development Plan (NDP 2021-2025): The Numbers Game
Providing a statistical backbone to these ambitions is the National Development Plan (NDP) for 2021-2025. Though launched by the previous administration, its goals are broadly aligned with the Renewed Hope Agenda. The NDP sets forth a series of bold quantitative targets, aiming to generate 21 million full-time jobs and lift 35 million people out of poverty by 2025. To achieve this, the plan projects an average real GDP growth rate of approximately 5% per year, a significant acceleration from recent performance.
Perhaps the most revealing aspect of the NDP is its funding strategy. The plan estimates that a total investment of N348.1 trillion is required to meet its objectives. Of this staggering sum, the government (at federal, state, and local levels) is projected to contribute only N49.7 trillion, or 14.3%. The remaining N298.3 trillion—a massive 85.7% of the total investment—is expected to come from the private sector. This is a candid and striking admission of the state’s fiscal limitations and an explicit pivot to a private sector-led growth model. The government’s role is thus defined not as the primary driver of development, but as an enabler, tasked with creating the “strong foundation for a diversified economy” and investing in the “critical physical, financial, digital, and innovation infrastructure” that will allow private enterprise to flourish.
To translate these plans into action, the government has launched several key initiatives. In agriculture, a state of emergency on food security was declared, and the Bank of Agriculture was recapitalized with ₦1.5 trillion to support farmers, particularly youth. A new 10-year Strategic Action Plan for agriculture (2026-2035) has been unveiled, prioritizing youth-led innovation and public-private partnerships. Programs like the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP), designed to provide credit and inputs to smallholder farmers, have shown success in increasing farm output and generating employment, though their impact on lifting farmers out of poverty has been mixed, hampered by implementation challenges.
This heavy reliance on private capital creates a fundamental paradox at the heart of Nigeria’s national strategy. The government’s blueprints for hope are critically dependent on the very entrepreneurs and innovators who have, for years, learned to succeed by navigating around state inefficiency. The World Bank reinforces this reality, noting that for Nigeria to achieve its aspiration of a $1 trillion economy by 2030, growth must be driven by the private sector, as the public sector alone cannot sustainably generate the required momentum. The success of the Renewed Hope Agenda and the NDP therefore hinges less on the government’s ability to direct the economy and more on its ability to fundamentally reform itself. The ultimate test will be whether the public sector can transform from a source of friction and unpredictability—characterized by red tape, policy instability, and insecurity—into a genuine catalyst for the already-surging private sector. The dream outlined in Abuja’s policy documents will only become a reality if it can enable, and not hinder, the dreams already being built in the streets of Lagos, Nnewi, and beyond.
Conclusion: A Hope Forged in Hustle
The Nigerian dream is a complex, vibrant, and often contradictory tapestry. It is woven from the threads of a demographic boom that is unparalleled on the continent, the rise of a dynamic new economy breaking free from the shackles of oil, the political awakening of a generation that refuses to be silent, and the ambitious national blueprints that seek to channel this energy into sustainable progress. To understand Nigeria in the 21st century is to understand the profound tension and interplay between these forces.
The hope for Nigeria’s future is not a passive or abstract aspiration. It is not a patient waiting for a brighter dawn. It is an active, tangible, and relentless process, best encapsulated by the ubiquitous Nigerian concept of “hustle”—the profound, innate drive to create opportunity, solve problems, and build value in an environment that is often challenging and unforgiving. This is a hope forged in the fires of necessity, and it is for this reason that it is so remarkably resilient. It is the hope of Temie Giwa-Tubosun building a logistics network to save mothers and their babies. It is the hope of Oluwatobi Ajayi assembling cars in Nnewi, daring to compete with global giants. It is the hope of the coders in Yabacon Valley building the financial infrastructure for a continent, and the Afrobeats stars in Lagos crafting a new global soundtrack.
Nigeria’s path forward is undeniably fraught with peril. The security challenges remain acute, infrastructure deficits are vast, and the risk of its demographic dividend becoming a demographic bomb—with millions of underemployed youth—is ever-present. The gap between the lived reality for many and the gleaming promise of the new economy is wide. Yet, the evidence of bottom-up innovation, of a private sector solving public problems, and of a generation determined to script its own future, is equally undeniable.
The ultimate success of the Nigerian dream will depend on closing the chasm between the speed, ingenuity, and ambition of its people and the capacity of its institutions to support, rather than hinder, their journey. The giant of Africa is stirring, its future being written not by government decree alone, but by the collective, irrepressible hustle of its 230 million dreamers. The world would do well to watch, listen, and learn.