Nigerian Youths are are not problematic, but resource to the nation, as the nation plans to scale them up and create opportunities for them . Our youths are not yet equipped for the 21st Century jobs, yet, the Federal Government through the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, is resolutely committed to equip them for the 21st Century challenges .
The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Hon. Sunday Dare made these declarations while receiving the delegation of Junior Achievement Nigeria, in his office on courtesy visit.
The Minister said: “it is a world of digital technology and the minds of our youths can take all better than the older generation. From our research, we found out that the best place to meet our youths is online,so we came up with Nigeria Online Youth Assembly (NOYA), which is an aggregator website, a one stop shop to connect our youths, to be launched soon”
The Minister stressed that the ministry has other innovative initiative ideas in the pipeline such as Digital Youth Nigeria; WEP- Work Experience Program, whereby the youths will be on 3-6 month internship with about 50 corporate firms to gain experience which will make them employable; and DEEL that will expose youth to Digital literacy, entrepreneurship, employment and leadership skills.
To this end, Hon Dare excitedly accepted to partner with Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN) and believes that the partnership works as JAN priorities are similar with the Ministry’s, especially in the 11 thematic areas that the ministry intends to work with the youths.
Earlier in his speech, Mr. Olaniyi Yusuf, a Director with JAN, said that Junior Achievement Nigeria is an international NGO founded in USA over a 100 years ago, and operates in more than 20 countries including Nigeria.
He asserted that their main purpose is to help develop youths within the age bracket of 5-25 years in 3 areas of financial interest, work readiness and entrepreneurship. Mr. Yusuf was accompanied by Mr. Rufai Ladipo and Simisola Nwogugu, who actually started Junior Achievement in Nigeria.
It is pertinent to state that the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development will sign an MOU with Junior Achievement Nigeria that would cement and forge a positive working relationship between the two organizations.
Obiechina Ngozi
Information Officer
For: Director, Press
