ABUJA – The Federal Government, in collaboration with the World Bank, is set to empower 10 million Nigerian youths with skills, job opportunities, and funding over the next five years. 

This initiative aims to address youth unemployment and vulnerability while fostering economic inclusion and entrepreneurship.

The plan was announced during a meeting in Abuja between the Minister of Youth Development, Comrade Ayodele Olawande, and a World Bank delegation led by economist Masheshwor Shrestha.

Olawande emphasized the need for coordinated youth interventions to tackle critical issues such as skill deficiencies, lack of access to vocational training, inadequate infrastructure, and limited access to credit.

The Ministry outlined a strategy to expand its credit support funds by $50 million to assist youth businesses and ensure that young Nigerians acquire at least two income-generating skills. It also aims to leverage the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme as a platform to reach millions of young people annually with training and opportunities.

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Olawande highlighted the current reality of over 60 million Nigerian youths in the labor market, with 5.5 million joining annually.

He urged stakeholders to build on existing collaborations to create a thriving environment for young people.

The Minister stated, “When you are engaged positively, you have a feeling that the government exists and what the president is doing. We can complement this to create a meaningful environment so that young people of this country can thrive.

“Since we assumed office, our focus has been to achieve a strong coordinated mechanism for all youth interventions, focus on economic inclusion, provide jobs directly and indirectly for at least 10 million youth within the next five years, ensuring that youth is proficient in at least two income generating skills, expand our credit support funds by $50 million to reach young people businesses and to increase Nigeria’s youth-focused infrastructure.”

The World Bank presented a three-pronged approach to youth engagement, focusing on skills development and job matching, managing migration opportunities to ease domestic economic pressures, and providing fallback employment through public works and entrepreneurial platforms.

According to Shrestha, these measures are designed to reduce youth unemployment and bolster economic resilience.

“One of the key assets of this Ministry is the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme and because of the number of youths (participating). NYSC is a platform that is unequal to the rest. The idea here is to use it to leverage the public works and entrepreneurship platform,” Shrestha stated.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Olubunmi Olusanya, reaffirmed the government’s commitment to strengthening partnerships with the World Bank to unlock more robust opportunities for the youth.