FG to invest $220m on job creation – Shettima

The Federal Government has concluded plans to put 220 cardinal dollars successful creating employment opportunities for young Nigerians.

Vice-President Kashim Shettima said this connected Wednesday portion inaugurating the Nigeria Jubilee Fellows Programme (NJFP) 2.0 astatine the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The inaugural is to beryllium spearheaded successful collaboration with the European Union (EU) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) done the 2nd signifier of the NJFP 2.0.

It aimed astatine connecting high-potential graduates with real-world enactment experience, training, and mentorship.

Shettima said the extremity was to span the modulation spread betwixt learning and earning for thousands of young Nigerians – graduates who person the acquisition but not ever the opportunity.

This, according to him, volition construe the nation’s demographic spot “into productive economical power”.

He said the medication of President Bola Tinubu is determined to deepen the ownership by embedding the programme into the government’s nationalist readying and budgeting frameworks.

“This authorities volition bash its part—by ensuring that our fiscal committedness to the programme reflects our content successful its transformative potential.

“But nationalist ownership indispensable besides mean nationalist participation, arsenic we motorboat NJFP 2.0 today.

” I telephone connected our partners—from the backstage sector, the improvement community, and the donor ecosystem—to articulation america successful gathering the NJFP Basket Fund, a sustainable financing mechanics to unafraid the programme’s future.

“Our contiguous extremity is to rise $220 million, not arsenic charity, but arsenic an concern successful the nation’s astir invaluable asset: our young people.”

Shettima implored the EU, the UNDP and different partners to see the flag-off of the programme arsenic an accidental to beryllium that “youth employment is not conscionable a argumentation precedence but a shared responsibility.”

He observed that erstwhile resources are pooled and intentions are aligned successful the people of gathering together, a multiplier effect is created that benefits the nation’s economy.

The Vice-President acknowledged the contributions of the EU and the UNDP, noting that their content successful Nigeria’s younker has demonstrated what could beryllium achieved done collaboration.

He said it was present clip for Nigeria, done its nationalist institutions, backstage assemblage champions, and philanthropic community, to pb from the front, adjacent arsenic helium maintained that inclusivity is cardinal to driving the process.

His words: “As we standard NJFP 2.0, inclusivity remains astatine the bosom of our design. We recognise that our young radical are not a azygous story. They unrecorded successful antithetic realities, crossed regions, genders, and societal backgrounds.

“Therefore, this adjacent signifier volition intentionally scope each country of the country, aligning placements with the sectors that volition specify our economical future: agriculture, renewable energy, integer technology, manufacturing, and the originative industries.”

Shettima expressed anticipation that the 2nd signifier of the NJFP would crook retired to beryllium a occurrence communicative “of however Nigeria turned its demographic vantage into a procreation of productive citizens.

” It volition beryllium creating jobs, gathering enterprises, and shaping the aboriginal of our large nation. The task earlier america is some superior and inspiring.

” The young Nigerians we question to service are not asking for handouts—only for a just strategy that recognises effort, rewards merit, and provides opportunity.

”They are acceptable to physique if we are acceptable to backmost them,” helium added.

The Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, described the NJFP 2.0 arsenic a continuation of the Federal Government’s occurrence successful younker empowerment.

He noted that since the programme began successful 2021, it has helped implicit 13,000 youths to summation skills.

The curate assured that the inaugural volition physique connected its advancement and execute its semipermanent extremity of placing 100,000 youths successful jobs wrong 5 years.

The Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) successful Nigeria, Ms Elsie Attafuah, said the generous backing from the EU and implementation enactment from the UNDP, implicit the years, are aimed astatine connecting imaginable to opportunity.

She noted that the imaginativeness behi...