EXCLUSIVE: The energy sector needs lawyers too, says YSDN’s Damilola Hamid Balogun

Damilola Hamid Balogun founded the Youth Sustainable Development Network. Speaking to ENN ahead of YES! Nigeria, he argues that Africa’s energy transition will be built as much by lawyers, policy specialists and communicators as by engineers, and that the pipeline into the sector is narrower than it needs to be.

One of Damilola Hamid Balogun’s law classmates at the University of Lagos now works as a policy analyst at a Nigerian energy company. He got there through two internships, one with Junior Enterprise Terrain and one with Solar Stewards in the United States, and then the Netherlands Consulate EcoLen project funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Balogun is co-founder and chief executive of the Youth Sustainable Development Network, which brings its members into YES! Nigeria in Abuja this November.

“The energy sector is incredibly broad. We need engineers, yes. We also need lawyers, financiers, policy professionals, communicators, data analysts and specialists. We need entrepreneurs and even project managers.”

Asked where the door into the sector is and who is holding it shut, Balogun said there is no one person standing there holding it. He listed the barriers as access to opportunities, networks, experience, finance and information.

“You don’t necessarily have to wait for somebody to show you a door. Build your skills, understand where you fit, create value and put yourself in the rooms where the work is happening. Those of us who already have access have the responsibility to make rooms more accessible.”

YSDN set out to engage thousands of young people across several countries and now invests in a smaller number.

“Numbers alone don’t create impact. People do. Five to ten people who are genuinely committed and can take initiative and are prepared to work can create significant impact, more than having hundreds of people who are loosely engaged.”

“I don’t think young people should be viewed as beneficiaries of CSR programmes, just intended to tick a box, or people you invite to demonstrate youth inclusion. They should be viewed as stakeholders in the future of business.”

“Investing in young talent should not be viewed as charity, but as a business strategy. If you’re building for Africa’s energy future without seriously engaging the generation that will inherit and operate it, you’re leaving out a critical part of that equation.”

“November becomes worthwhile if people leave having made connections that can actually take them somewhere,” he said of YES! Nigeria. “Talent meeting opportunity, businesses meeting ideas, investors meeting projects, and young people getting direct access to people they might otherwise struggle to reach. If someone walks away with a job opportunity, a mentor, an investor conversation, a partnership, or simply a much clearer understanding of where they fit, then we’ve done something worthwhile.”

Nigeria NOW! and YES! Nigeria take place on 19 and 20 November 2026 at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre in Abuja, under the patronage of the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development.