Federal government has promised to address and implement development programmes that have direct impact on young Nigerians.
The minister of youth and sports development, Mr Sunday Dare, made the pledge at the closure of the 2023 Commonwealth Youth and Students’ Summit (CYSS), African Region held in Abuja.
He said issues of advancing youth development, raised at the one-week international event, is a multi-faceted phenomenon that requires a multi-sectoral approach as no one agency or organ of government can adequately address youth challenges in any country not to talk of Africa as a region.
According to him, “All hands must be on deck in tackling all forms of challenges that hinder the development of our productive youth, especially in the African Region.”
Dare said the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government over the years has initiated and implemented various programmes and projects to curtail youth unemployment by engaging them in meaningful and productive ventures that contributed to socio-economic growth and development of the country.
The minister said the National Youth Policy (NYP) and Nigerian Youth Employment Action Plan (NIYEAP) as well as the National Youth Employment Template were developed by the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development to respond to youth employment in Nigeria.
He said the federal government through the efforts of the ministry approved N75billion (Nigeria Youth Investment Fund (NYIF) for young entrepreneurs to have access to loans at minimal interest rate in order to establish and improve their businesses.
“The Federal Ministry of Sports and Youth Development under my watch launched the DEEL initiative aimed at giving Nigerian Youth a comparative advantage and a competitive edge in the global employment demand and supply. DEEL is an acronym for D-Digital Skills acquisition, E-Employability, E-Entrepreneurship and L- Leadership. The DEEL initiative has equipped 200,000 youth with digital skills-basic, intermediate and advanced skill in areas such as Web design and management, software training, cloud competing, artificial intelligence, app development, code and data processing,” Dare said.
Also, the minister of communication and digital economy, Professor Isa Ali Pantami, stated that Nigeria is committed to the development and empowerment of its youth in the country.
He said that was why the Buhari’s administration came up with numerous youth programmes to empower the nation’s teeming youth populace.
“These include: Digital Skill Acquisition, Cybersecurity, Web Development, Robotics, Applications Development, E- Business Management, E-Commerce/Digital Marketing, Digital Photography, Coding, among others.”
He advised youths in the African Continent to ensure improvement in skill acquisition rather than taking pride in the acquisition of academic certificates alone without practical knowledge. “The world is moving away from certificates to skills. If you want to be relevant then improve your skills with that you are set to compete globally,” Pantami said.
In her remarks at the event, the minister of women affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen, stated that her ministry has identified Gender Based Violence (GBV) as a challenge to youth development and is collaborating and intensifying advocacy with relevant government agencies, civil society organisations and relevant stakeholders with a view to putting an end to Gender Based Violence (GBV) so as to provide Nigerian youths the opportunity to excel in their life’s endeavours.
