FG targets 20,000 jobs annually as Shettima flags off NJFP 2.0, policy dialogue

—Inaugurates task steering committee, tasks members connected inclusivity, tangible outcomes

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA — THE Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, connected Monday, said Nigeria authorities is targeting the instauration of astatine slightest 20,000 jobs annually done the motorboat of the 2nd signifier of the Nigeria Jubilee Fellows Programme (NJFP) aimed astatine connecting high-potential graduates with real-world enactment experience, training, and mentorship.

And to spearhead the inaugural successful enactment with President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, the the Vice President, volition connected Wednesday, successful Abuja, emblem disconnected the Nigeria Jubilee Fellows Programme (NJFP) 2.0 and state unfastened a High-Level Policy Dialogue connected Job Creation with the theme, “From Skills to Jobs and Enterprises: Driving Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship successful Key Economic Sectors.”

Ahead of the flag-off, the Vice President, inaugurated the Project Steering Committee of the NJFP 2.0, with a complaint to members to marque definite the programme is inclusive, ensuring that the accidental reaches each portion of the country.

The NJFP, a flagship inaugural of the Federal Government being coordinated by the Office of the Vice President, is implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and funded by the European Union (EU).

Launched successful 2022 to span the spread betwixt skills, jobs, and enterprise, the programme has already empowered implicit 14,000 young Nigerians done the 12-month paid fellowships that physique experience, confidence, and lasting vocation opportunities.

Inaugurating the Project Steering Committee, Senator Shettima noted that the extremity of the NJFP is to span the modulation spread betwixt learning and earning for thousands of young graduates with the required acquisition but nary occupation opportunity.

The programme, helium said, represents “a deliberate effort to construe the nation’s demographic spot into productive economical power, demonstrating that erstwhile authorities provides structure, partnership, and purpose, young Nigerians emergence to the occasion.”

Maintaining that the NJFP is simply a Nigerian programme, shaped by nationalist priorities and the nation’s consciousness of purpose, the VP told members of the committee “to deepen that ownership, fortify coordination crossed our institutions, and guarantee that NJFP remains accountable to the ambitions of this administration.”

Imploring the committee to enactment towards tangible outcomes and guarantee inclusivity, VP Shettima said, “As we deliberate today, I promote america to deliberation not successful presumption of targets oregon figures alone, but successful presumption of outcomes that matter; young radical whose lives alteration due to the fact that this strategy works arsenic intended.

“We person an accidental present to show what concern done close tin achieve: wherever authorities leads with clarity, partners lend with confidence, and results talk for themselves. Therefore, fto america attack our enactment with that understanding.

“In scaling NJFP 2.0, inclusivity indispensable stay astatine the bosom of our design. Our young radical are not a homogenous group; they unrecorded successful antithetic realities crossed regions, genders, and societal backgrounds. We indispensable guarantee that this accidental reaches each country of the state — and that placements are tied to the sectors that volition signifier Nigeria’s future: agriculture, integer technology, renewable energy, manufacturing, and the originative industries.”

On his part, European Union (EU) Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Mr. Gautier Mignot, expressed assurance that the programme would alteration the lives of young Nigerians, saying the enactment of the Nigerian authorities volition optimize the afloat mandate of the NJFP 2.0.

Also, the UNDP Resident Representative, Elsie Attafuah, described the NJFP 2.0 arsenic a portion of a larger nationalist and continental imaginativeness which the UNDP is arrogant to support, noting that the people is to enactment crossed Nigeria to physique an ecosystem that creates jobs.

She applauded Vice President Shettima for spearheading the initiative, saying what young Nigerians request is concern opportunities and an enabling ecosystem to marque usage of their skills and expertise.

Earlier, Deputy Chief of Staff to the P...