Youth and Sports Development Minister Mr. Sunday Dare has reaffirmed the commitment of the Federal Government to the development of the youth through the implementation of various empowerment programmes.
Speaking in Abuja, Mr Dare said “The Government of President Mohammadu Buhari is a youth-friendly one that has initiated about twenty-four youth-based programmes in the last five-plus years. These youth programmes are top agenda for the Government.
“Their programs are domiciled in various Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government. What these protests have shown us that the government needs to do more of such programmes to address the needs of the Youth and increase the size of youth beneficiaries”.
“These initiatives are scattered in various segments like digital training, Young smart farmer, N-power, entrepreneurship, various skills acquisition programs, and a couple of others.
Recently, the Nigeria Youth Investment Fund, NYIF was launched and the application process has recently commenced. The NYIF was established in July 2020. Over 420k youth have applied within a week of opening the application portal.
“We hope through this fund we can support youth Entrepreneurs with needed financial capital so that they can become wealth creators”.
“The Minister also spoke about the public works program targeted at 1,000 youth per each of the 774 local government areas across the country.
“President Buhari has signed on to every youth-focused program put before him. The implementation of these programs are ongoing and our youth need to apply themselves to these opportunities.
“This government is being guided by the National Youth Policy with 13 thematic areas. The goal is to continually empower our youth to make them self employed. No nation develops without a strategic plan for youth development. This government has done a lot to develop the youth and will do more.
“The government has also created an enabling environment for youth-led Fintech to thrive. The CBN created a special license category for youth-led fintech several years back. The recent $200 million purchase of Paystack readily comes to mind
