The Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to youth development-focused initiatives that would harness the potentials of the youth and as well upscale them towards achieving rapid socio-economic growth in the country.
The Honourable Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr Sunday Dare disclosed this today during the commemoration of the 2021 AFRICA YOUTH DAY, which was held in Abuja- with the theme ”Defining the Future Today: Youth-Led Solutions for Building Africa We Want”.
Explaining further, Mr Dare stated that the Federal Government in the realization of the demographic dividends of the Nigerian Youth as a strategic asset has pledged to continue to support their efforts with youth development focused-initiatives that will create innovative solutions and boost their entrepreneurial capacity.
Buttressing this assertion, He said ” This administration is committed to youth development and has established youth development – focused initiatives, while scaling upon existing ones, such as the recently approved increase of N-Power beneficiaries from 500,000 to One Million; the N75 billion National Youth Investment Fund ( NYIF); the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Creative Sector Fund, and others being carried out in collaboration with international partners.”
To complement the efforts of the Federal Government in investment in the Nigerian youth, the Minister said that the Ministry has initiated deliberate policies and programmes that will enhance the capacity of the youth as it recognizes the youth as key agents for socio-economic growth and sustainable development.
To this end, Mr Dare affirmed that ” the Ministry is focused on providing opportunities for our youth in Training, Digital Skills, Entrepreneurship, soft skills, internships and access to credit and finance among others. The DEEL programme helps to fill the knowledge and skills gap in the Nigerian youth. Our DEEL initiative focuses on Digital Literacy and Skills Acquisition, Entrepreneurship, Employability and Leadership. We focus more on training into enterprise and, in the past 2 years, we have trained close to 198,000 youth.”
On the heels of these recorded successes in youth investment, the Minister stated, is the Nigerian Youth Investment Fund ( NYIF), an initiative of the Ministry that provides access to funds. Over 6,000 youth from across the country have benefited and another batch of 10,000 is currently undergoing training before benefiting, he noted.
In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Alhaji Ismail Abubakar stated that the government will create a conducive environment that will ensure that the capacity of our youth for innovations, entrepreneurship and leadership is nurtured to attain socio-economic growth and development.
To commemorate the AFRICA YOUTH DAY, several goodwill messages came from the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, NYSC, UNFPA, ECOWAS and National Youth Council of Nigeria ( NYCN) amongst others.
