The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Youth Development, Dr. Donuma Umar Ahmed has said that the federal government is ready to collaborate with the Islamic Cooperation Youth Forum (ICYF) on empowerment of youth to make them productive and self-reliant.
Dr. Ahmed stated this when he received the Director-General of the cabinet, ICYF, Mr. Yunus Sonmez and his delegation, who came on a courtesy visit to his office at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja.
The Permanent Secretary remarked that the Ministry welcomes ideas and programmes that empower the youth and give them the opportunity to network with their counterparts around the world.
According to the Permanent Secretary, “Our doors are always open to any initiative for collaboration on issues of youth development and any initiative that will deepen collaborations between us and organizations that work on youth development.”
“We are going to take the cooperations to the next level. We will look at those frameworks that you have outlined, and we are going to bring up our position. We are going to interface with you and cooperate with you in all those areas.” He added.
The Permanent Secretary informed the guest that the Ministry handles issues of entrepreneurship, adding that there is a technical department that handles the issues of youth entrepreneurship and vocational skills. He further disclosed that the Ministry also has a department that deals with youth education.
“We are also dealing with issues of mental health. We will look at those critical areas that we can collaborate to work out a flagship programme”, he further explained.
He assured the delegation of the Ministry’s commitment to the noble objectives of repositioning the Nigerian youth to enable them to play a significant role in the socio-economic development of the country.
Earlier, the head of the delegation, Mr. Yunus Sonmez disclosed that his organisation, which has its headquarters in Turkey, is affiliated with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). He added that the ICYF deals with issues on economic, social, and cultural growth.
“We have been working on economic, social and cultural growth since 2006, we have vocational training and entrepreneurship, we have social programmes with focus on network creation where we organise camps and other programmes to bring youths from the OIC member states and Muslim minorities in the US, Britain and Europe together to discuss issues concerning the youth”. He said.
He disclosed that his organization has OIC Youth Capital Programme and encouraged the Ministers of Youth and Sports from the Sub Saharan African member nations of the OIC to apply for the programme.
Mr. Sonmez further said, “The main aim of visiting Nigeria is because of our iftar prorammes which we want to hold here, and we would like to develop our relationship with the relevant authorities. We are working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We want to enlarge our cooperations. Nigeria is one of the biggest countries in the OIC region in terms of population and potential.”
Maryam Umar Yusuf
Head (Press & PRU)
