The Ministry of Youth and Sports Development on Tuesday announced a partnership with Microsoft to train 36,000 young Nigerians in digital skills in the next one year.
A statement by the Senior Assistant to the minister on Media, Mr. John-Joshua Akanji, made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said the partnership would be executed through Technology for Social Change and Development, an initiative of Microsoft.
Speaking at the signing of MOU in Abuja on Tuesday, Mr. Sunday Dare, the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, said he was glad the company decided to partner with the ministry to train Nigerian youths to acquire digital skills.
“This is very important and keys into our core agenda to upscale our youths and make them employable, entrepreneurs through digital skills.
“We have a massive youth population, so we need to scale up the number of our youths that get trained.
“Technology is an enabler, graduates need additional skills to be relevant in the country and globally,” Dare said.
Executive Director, Tech4Dev, Mrs. Oladiwura Oladepo, said the partnership aligned with the company’s commitment to creating access to decent work and entrepreneurship opportunities and platforms for Africans through digital skills empowerment and advocacy.
“We are partnering with the Ministry of Youth and Sports to upskill 36,000 young Nigerians in digital skills over the next one year through the Emerging Markets Model Initiative (EMMI),” she said.
She added that the EMMI was a multi-year, multi-stakeholder, private-public, non-profit partnership designed by Microsoft to build the capacity of key government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).
“This initiative aims to offer sustainable, scalable, reskilling and employment services aligned to the local labour markets.
“It targets 36,000 youths over one year, using a virtual and physical learning approach, in various training centres across Nigeria.
“This would be achieved through multi-year collaboration with four strategic Federal Government Ministries and 12 state governments,” she said.
(NAN)
