ABUJA (Min of Youths and Sports Dev) –The Federal Government has admonished the Youths on the importance of Skills acquisition as a means of addressing the challenges of unemployment and underemployment in the society to achieve better socio-economic conditions for today’s youth.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Olusade Adesola stated this while receiving an assemblage of Youths from different segments of the F.C.T society, including NYSC members at the Unity Fountain Square in Abuja recently from the Road Show procession in commemoration of the 2019 World Youth Skills Day, scheduled by the United Nations for July 15 of every year.
In the course of extolling the virtues of skills acquisition, Mr Adesola poignantly counselled the Youths to acquire Skills, adding that it has capacity to improve their socio-economic status in all ramifications, in addition to academic pursuit. While pursuing this noble path of emancipation, Mr. Adesola affirmed that the Youths must be courageous, bold and focused in their choices of making themselves marketable, employable and socially responsible.
The Federal Government on his part, the Permanent Secretary enthused, is adopting a multi-sectoral approach to tackle and reduce unemployment in the country, amongst which is the tool of Sports for Skills Training and Capacity Building.
Mr. Olusade Adesola said, “Sports elevates minions to portentous. Aftermath of 19th NSF achieved upward of 80 millionaires from Prize money and property owners For instance, the 2018 National Sports Festival had a total of 7,227 athletes and 1,168 officials in attendance.. .‘’’
 In the area of Youth Programmes, the Ministry, according to Mr.Adesola, provided capacity building in various Skill areas, entrepreneurship and empowerment to over 1,200 Youths.
Furthermore, he averred that the Ministry promoted specialization by establishing tailoring and apparel production hub at the National Youth Centre, Ode-Omu in Osun State, adding, the maiden training at this facility up scaled the skills of 85 Nigerian Youths many of whom are now gainfully employed.
Representatives from Partnering Organisations joined the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development to participate in the Road show procession of today through the major streets of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, to generate public awareness about the importance of skills acquisition. These include the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), International Labour Organisation (ILO), World Skills Day, Green Soil, NYSC FCT, FCT Youth Centre and WAI brigade; who also spoke extempore to reaffirm the significance/importance of Skills acquisition for socio-economic emancipation of youths in the society.
Ramon A. Balogun
A.D. Press
