…creates Mobile App to link customers, beneficiaries of training
By Michael Oche
The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has set an ambitious plan to address Nigeria’s unemployment crisis, aiming to create 90,000 new jobs through a series of skills training programs.
These initiatives are designed to equip youths with valuable vocational skills across different sectors, including public works, agriculture, and small-scale industries.
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday in Abuja, NDE Director General, Mr Silas Agara said the training is distributed across all 37 states and the Federal Capital Territory, ensuring a minimum of 10 participants per political ward.
The Director General also explained that in addition to the skills training, the NDE plans to introduce a digital platform to link beneficiaries with customers, noting that a Mobile App will also be launched to allow Nigerians to request services from trained artisans, such as plumbers and landscapers, ensuring transparency and fostering trust.
The DG said this initiative is in line with President Bola Tinubu’s agenda to support youth employment and economic empowerment.
Mr Agara explained that the NDE is also committed to transitioning from an outdated, paper-based system to a digital database, making it easier to track beneficiaries and prevent duplications in future training programs.
He said, “The program will run for the next three months. We have been able to come up with an immediate roadmap. I don’t want to say a short-term roadmap, because short-term should be able to run for the next one year.”
“But we’re looking at an immediate roadmap that we can hit the ground running. That immediate roadmap was generated in-house by working with all the teams that we met on ground. Implementing that roadmap is what we are doing by generating this over 90,000 skills program to ensure that we are looking at a minimum of 10 persons per award”, he said.
He said like in the past where NDE trainees are allowed to fend for themselves after training, under his leadership beneficiaries will be provided opportunities to use their skills to make money.
He said, “We are trying to phase out some set skills that are no longer too viable. Technology is taking the center stage now. And in this training, we have over 30,000 that are going to be digital training process. Over 30,000 out of the over 90,000; that means one-quarter or one-tenth of it is going to digital skills training. You will agree with me that some set skills today are not viable.”
He said at the completion of the process, some of the trainees will get a starter pack in terms of money to start their business while others will be linked to other government agencies such as the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to get them set up.