Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Hon. Sunday Dare has stated that his administration will continue to pay attention of the affairs of the country’s youth in equal measure as it gives to sports in Nigeria.

Since the start of his tenure, Hon. Sunday Dare has initiated several programmes and schemes to support the dreams and aspirations of youth in Nigeria, recognizing that the youth remains the livewire of the country.

Dare said “when I assumed office, I realized that there was a gap that needed to be filled in the level of attention given to the youth in relation to sports. We had to develop a template for youth development and we swung into action”.

“We secured funds in the tune of 75 Billion Naira with approval from the Federal Government for the disbursement of 25 Billion Naira per year for the National Youth Investment Fund (NYIF). Over 3,000 youth across the country have benefitted from this scheme and disbursement is still ongoing and it is all in a bid to help provide an entrepreneurship base for our young, vibrant population. The concept behind the building of an entrepreneurial spirit was to facilitate economic prosperity amongst that age bracket.”

Working towards wealth creation, we leveraged on ICT to further build our digital economic profile, through the organizing of marketable digital skills programmes. We went on to put up scholarship schemes, as well.”

One of the achievements of Sunday Dare as the Youth Minister was the organizing and staging of the country’s first ever National Youth Convention, which was held in Abuja. It was a platform that brought the youth from all over Nigeria to one room and brainstorm on issue that concerned the population. The opportunity gave the youth a vista into their role as the future of the country and the need for youth participation in leadership.

On the area of employment, the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development responded to the employment gap in the country by developing the National Youth Policy (NYP), Nigerian Youth Employment Action Plan (NIYEAP), as well as the National Youth Employment Template and the DEEL initiative.
Speaking on the acronym FEEL, which means, Digital Employability Entrepreneurship and Leadership, Sunday Dare said “the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development under my watch launched DEEL to give Nigerian youth a comparative advantage and a competitive edge in the global employment demand and supply”.

The DEEL initiative has equipped 200,000 youth with digital skills – basic, intermediate and advanced skills in areas such as Web design and management, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing etc. Nigeria’s e-commerce spending stands at $12b and is projected to reach $75b in 3 years.

The Ministry working closely with the Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari increased the monthly allowance of Corps Member under the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) from 19,800 Naira to 33,000 Naira.

Bi-lateral relationships have been signed in the area of youth development for the benefits of the Nigerian youth with countries like South Africa, Spain, Rwanda, Portugal. Japan, Turkey etc. These relationships have opened the doors of opportunities for Nigerian youths in different sectors such as tech, education, arts, entertainment, sports etc.
Within the country MoUs have been signed with organizations such as Google, Konga and a host of others all in a bid to open more doors for the youth.

Conclusively, the Federal Government through the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development has pledged its commitment to youth development-focused initiatives, so as to fully harness the potentials of the youth towards achieving rapid socio-economic growth.

Eshanumu, a former Kogi West Senatorial Aspirant on APC platform disclosed this while presenting the employment letters to the beneficiaries on Friday in Abuja.

It would be recalled that the philanthropist, a successful business woman, had recently on several occasions secured employments in Federal Government MDAs for many youths in Kogi west Senatorial district.

She had repeatedly assured the youths in the zone that majority of them would be gainfully employment before December 2022, a promise she has been keeping till date.

According to her, the gesture was part of her commitment and passion to reduce unemployment in the Western Senatorial zone of Kogi State by using her influence and all available resources within her reach to alleviate the suffering of her constituents.

She restated her commitment to continue to deliver on her promises especially to help the youths of the zone secure jobs and put food on their tables.

She stressed that her passion to reduce unemployment rate and youth restiveness was not politically motivated or induced, but being promoted by her zeal and commitment to see the teeming jobless youths of the zone gainfully employed.

She, therefore enjoined the beneficiaries of the employment to utilise the golden opportunity, put in their best and make their family,the zone and the state at large proud.

End

Minister of Youth and sports Development Mr Sunday Dare has reiterated the need to have more youth trained in digital skills in order to adress the problem of employment.
The Minister made this assertion at the 2021 Annual Luncheon of Government College, Ibadan, Old Boys Association (GCIOBA) held in Ibadan on Sunday.

The Minister who spoke on Digital Literacy, a Panacea for Youth Unemployment, emphasized the need for improved digital education especially among the youths.
According to him, “There have been focused efforts to close the digital skills gap through a number of digital
capacity building initiatives. Some are ongoing as we speak . Also, ongoing
is the implementation of the Nigerian Youth Investment Fund. Mr President
listened to our arguments about the need to make our Youth develop their Enterprenuership spirit. Despite the
competing needs for resources, the President approved the establishment of the first Youth
Investment Fund ever put in place in Nigeria: N 75 B released over three years.
N25B per annum for three years at 5%, moratorium, capacity building, no
guarantor. The first tranche has been disbursed to applicants across the country
and the second tranche is about to commence. This is what is called putting our
money where our Youths are.”

He further stated ” It is worthy to note that the importance of Digital Literacy to employability is that
it a necessity to succeed in modern economy. Having the basic digital literacy
skills can enhance the employability of individuals. Most jobs require digital
literacy. In Nigeria, with the high level of youth unemployment, a youth skilled
in basic and intermediate digital skills is more likely to access jobs locally and globally. Opportunities such as outsourcing, digital marketing, software
development, artificial Intelligence, data analysis, IT administration and many
others are job-creating opportunities”.

Speaking On the DEEL initiative, he affirmed
“The DEEL initiative is designed to unleash the potential of youth
and to leverage on the youth bulge as a demographic dividend by providing
opportunities for investment in youth innovation and energies through a
coordinated mechanism that will deliver cross cutting benefit”.

He highlighted the objectives of DEEL to include; Deliver basic, mid-level and advanced digital skills training for 1 million youth annually; facilitate at least 50,000, start-ups in the ICT sector
annually; upskill youth with digital skills for leverage through digital
solutions in key sectors such as agriculture, power, health, manufacturing,
renewable energy and services. In addition, DEEL will enhance employability of
at least 50,000 youth annually from 2021-2023 through paid internships”.

He added “The Ministry’s DEEL programme got Nigerian youth engaged through
Digital Skills, which included Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced training for
500,000 young people. It is also targeting mobile device training for 100,000
youth, aside from the Work Experience Programme (WEP) – internship
opportunities for three months for 5,000 youth. Digital Youth Nigeria (DY.ng)
exposes participants to standard training sessions on global digital roles like
Business Process Outsourcing skills, Software and Coding skills, Animation,
Graphics skills, Internet of Things (IoT), IT hardware skills. The essence is to
grow our abilities in digital services, in view of the increasing realities of remote
living, augmented reality and hypertext documents.”

He concluded by saying “It is important to note that increased investment in youth by
the Government, the private sector and development partners is the major path to
ensure that Nigeria is able to harness the advantage of technology to reposition
the economy. The opportunities abound, but we must keep the focus, just like the
Government College, Ibadan, Old Boys Association (GCIOBA), is doing. We
will not rest on our oars in providing quality leadership for not only the youth of
our dear nation, but for the entire citizenry in line with the vision of President
Mohammadu Buhari’s administration”.

Signed
Media office of the Honourable Minister of Youth and Sports Development

The age long issue of unemployment benefits for the youth has once again come to the fore with the Minister of Youth and Sports Development Mr Sunday Dare advocating for setting up unemployment benefits for Youth within the framework of the social register.

Speaking at the Ministerial Dialogue on Socialising the Nigerian Social Register organised by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development in Abuja on Tuesday, Mr Dare Said” Let me thank the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development for putting this together.

This event puts in the public domain the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari to address the social register to address unemployment. There is no country without the poor or those that suffer human disaster.

These are mostly women, children, the vulnerable and Youth. When you look at greatest beneficiaries, they are the Nigerian people poor and the vulnerable, but the greatest beneficiaries are the youth”
Mr Dare further said.

This country needs employment benefit for its unemployed Youth because of the huge youth population. We need to collaborate to give our Youth some comfort. When you look at the demography, Nigeria has a huge population. The data of the youth is there for everyone to come to terms with.

What you have put together will help us to plan and seek for partners. This will put Nigeria on the part of progress.

Let us see how we can chart a pathway for our youth so that we can put together a compelling justification to create a Youth data base. We can benchmark this with what obtains in UK, US and other parts of the world that takes care of the aged and the youth population.

We need to match skills acquisition with jobs that are available in our society. Federal Ministries of Labour, Communications and Digital Economy, Agriculture and Youth and Sports Development and other agencies of government are creating opportunities for our youth.
The part that we are charting under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari is one that lays a solid foundation for all strata of our society. As we build these linkages,we can increase the number of our women and youth that can be lifted out of poverty”
The Minister thanked Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs for this effort that brings Nigeria at par with other countries as testified to by development partners.

Speaking to journalists after meeting with the corps members and camp officials at the camp’s auditorium, the Minister said “part of the next level agenda is that we live in a 21st century economy, driven by digital technology, we’ve found out that there’s a digital skills gap in Nigeria and Africa, there’s need to equip our youth and graduates with that extra digital skill so that they can be competitive when they get to the job market. We need to make them more employable because the question of employability is critical, so the ministry has conceived of a program called DY.NG, Digital Youth Nigeria, for digital literacy and digital skills acquisition, and in the next few weeks, we are going to roll out, we have 64 digital hubs across the country, we are going to activate 4 other youth enterprise centres, 4 in each geo-political zones and we hope that our youth can benefit from that”.

Also disclosing plans for the corps members, he said they will graduate into a 2 month program after which they will get certificates in various digital skills to improve their employability.

The Minister added that the Ministry’s programs on youth development have become imperative considering the population of youth in the country. “When you look at the sheer population of youth in this country almost 68 to70 million, you also look at the percentage of unemployment and the large number of those that are unemployed are the youth. You look at the projections even by the United Nations. There’s an agenda 2030 to empower our youths. You know that the greatest resource that this country has that needs to be harnessed is its youth. We say the youths are the leaders of tomorrow but if you don’t train them today, if you don’t equip them today, they cannot lead tomorrow”.

“We have a passion for youth development, in the areas of skills acquisition, entrepreneurship, employment creation, leadership and mentoring”, he said, adding that the Ministry is in partnership with some Federal Ministries and the Central Bank of Nigeria to achieve all of the Ministry’s vision for youth development.

Signed
Media Office of the Minister of Youth and Sports Development.