The Federal Government is working with the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, and International Labour Organisation, ILO, to review Nigeria’s Youth Employment Action Plan as part of efforts to equip young Nigerians with skills required for emerging jobs.
Minister of Youth Development Ayodele Olawande disclosed the initiative during a two-day regional consultative meeting in Port Harcourt focusing on the review of the Nigerian Youth Employment Action Plan for the country’s 17 southern states.
Olawande, represented by the ministry’s Chief Youth Development Officer, Bakare Abayomi, said Nigeria’s youthful population would be critical to the country’s economic transformation.
The review is intended to ensure that employment policy responds to changes taking place across the global labour market.
Government Targets Skills-Employment Gap
Nigeria has one of Africa’s largest youth populations, giving the country a potentially significant workforce for technology, manufacturing, creative industries, agriculture and other emerging sectors.
But converting that demographic advantage into economic growth requires young people to possess skills that employers actually need.
The Federal Government says its collaboration with development partners is aimed at creating opportunities for young Nigerians to acquire skills relevant to the 21st-century job market.
That means employment policy increasingly needs to move beyond simply counting jobs.
Attention is shifting towards the quality of employment, technical capabilities, entrepreneurship and the ability of workers to adapt as technology changes traditional occupations.
Digitalisation and artificial intelligence are already transforming areas including banking, telecommunications, media, logistics and professional services.
Nigeria’s workforce development strategy will consequently need to anticipate future jobs rather than train young people exclusively for occupations that already exist.
Regional Consultations Underway
The Port Harcourt meeting forms part of the consultation process for reviewing the national youth employment strategy.
Bringing together stakeholders from the 17 southern states gives policymakers an opportunity to account for differences in regional economies and employment opportunities.
Nigeria’s labour market is not uniform.
Oil and gas remain important in parts of the South-South, while Lagos and other urban centres have developed substantial technology, financial services, entertainment and creative economies.
Agriculture, manufacturing, tourism and small businesses also provide employment across different parts of the country.
A national employment strategy therefore needs enough flexibility to address these regional differences while establishing broader national objectives.
Digital Skills Become Increasingly Important
The employment initiative comes as the Federal Government expands other skills-development programmes.
A separate government-backed Digital Training Academy has selected 16,000 Nigerians for its inaugural cohort, with participants expected to receive free digital training.
Taken together, the programmes indicate a growing emphasis on skills as part of the government’s employment strategy.
But training programmes ultimately need to produce measurable outcomes.
The important question will be how many participants move from training into sustainable employment, entrepreneurship or higher-paying occupations.
Nigeria’s youth employment challenge cannot be solved by government programmes alone. Private companies create a substantial share of employment opportunities, meaning policy must also support investment and business expansion capable of absorbing newly trained workers.
The involvement of UNICEF and the ILO could provide international expertise in designing programmes and labour-market interventions, but implementation will remain critical.
For the revised Youth Employment Action Plan to have lasting impact, it will need to connect education, practical skills, private-sector demand, entrepreneurship and actual employment opportunities rather than treating them as separate policy objectives.
With millions of young Nigerians entering working age over the coming years, getting that connection right will be increasingly important to the country’s economic future.
