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Minister Of Youth Takes DY.ng To African Economic Conference

Published

6 years ago

December 4, 2019

…Confident of meeting target of training youth in digital skills

Joel Ajayi

Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Sunday Dare on Tuesday presented a component of an initiative of his Ministry, Digital Youth Nigeria (DY.ng), to a gathering of continental stakeholders at a panel session of the 2019 African Economic Conference in Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt with the theme Jobs, Entrepreneurship and Capacity Development for African Youth.

He expressed the confidence that the target of equipping one million youth with digital skills is attainable given the initiative of other stakeholders like the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The Minister, during a session on Ministerial Dialogue on Youth Employment Policy, spoke on the workings of DY.ng, under which the Ministry will train 500,000 youth in digital skills at various youth centres across the six geo-political zones in conjunction with private sector partners.

Mr Dare who also participated in another session on “Enhancing demand-driven digital and technical skills development” said “We are looking at digital literacy at the bottom of the pyramid. Those who are not graduates, with primary school certificates will also be trained in the basic digital skills they need to thrive in this modern time.

“I am now very confident that we can attain the training of 1 million Nigerian youth in digital skills now that I have seen that AfDB is planning for 25 million under its Coding for Employment programme.

DY.ng is a component under DEEL, which stands for Digital skills acquisition, Entrepreneurship, Employability and Leadership.

Mr Dare had said he will use DEEL to scale up the number of youth that are trained under the Federal Government programmes especially since the initiative will work to strengthen the thematic areas of the National Youth Policy.

The panel discussions explored how to better understand the practical policy changes required to create Decent Jobs for Youth and improve their entrepreneurial capacities.

Shortly before departing for the conference at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja on Sunday, Mr Dare noted that “the objective is to network at this conference and bring more potential stakeholders on board in a way that eliminates duplications such that the scarce resources allocated to youth development by each one of them will be effectively used to reach more beneficiaries.

“We are continuing to identify more government agencies and international partners that can plug into what we are doing. We will continue to share our vision for the Nigerian youth with them so what we can find areas of collaboration,” he explained.

Mr Dare noted that this year’s conference speaks to the various components of DEEL like the Digital Youth Nigeria (DY.ng) that will equip 500,000 youth with the skill needed to thrive in a digitized world, the Work Experience Programme (WEP) that pair youth with corporation organizations to gain work experience thereby boosting their employability and the entrepreneurship component of the initiative that will provide self-employment skills in addition to seeking funding for youth-owned enterprises.

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CELEBRATING A CENTURY-OLD CIVIL AVIATION SECTOR TRAJECTORY IN NIGERIA

Published

1 week ago

December 1, 2025

The Gleamer

This week, millions of Nigerians and others across the globe will join the Ministry of Aviation and Space Development under the irrepressible leadership of the Honourable Minister, Festus Keyamo(SAN),and all the notable Aviation sector stakeholders in and outside the country,in celebrating a century of Nigeria’s civil aviation history.

There is no doubt that under the present leadership of the Honourable Minister and within the short spell of time in his stewardship,he has consciously and intentionally embarked on a “silent revolution” for the industry with very veritable and laudable landmarks that have consistently grown the industry.

Some of these spirited efforts for instance have consequently led to trust restoration amongst international lessors, financier,any global partners.Of note also is assidiously working for the full domestication and implementation of the “Cape Town Convention Agreement” ,which gives Airlines access to modern fleets of competitive rates as well as enforcement of IDERA(Irrevocable Deregulation and Export Request Authorization).

Having well applauded these vital contemporary initiatives,it will also be germane to cast our minds in retrospect by taking a peep into our history over several decades to recognise some of the notable forebears in the industry whose impressionabl efforts cannot be overlooked,as they took the impetuous initiatives of breaking the ice at the nascent stage.
It will aptly corroborate the truism which says that… ” a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step”.

The above is vividly captured from a tribute by the First Republic Minister of Aviation Chief Mbazulike Amaechi at the funeral of late Igwe of Oba,HRH Peter Ezenwa(MFR) in 2018.
It states inter alia…”One significant thing I will say many people didn’t know is that the first indigenous airline that was to run in Nigeria was known as “STANDARD AIRLINE”.It was founded in 1966 by a company formed by Igwe Peter Ezenwa from Oba,and had on board,John Nwankwu from Abagana,Edward Ebo from Ezinifitte,(all from Anambra state),John Anyaehie from Nkwerre in Imo state,and lastly my very self Mbazulike Amaechi.
The five of us later acquired two brand new aircrafts,and had four pilots,namely;Unachievable,John Emma Ngwu and Felix Offor,who was to be the General Manager of the airline.
But just about the time for the take-off the crisis of the military takeover erupted in the North as the planes were on their way for delivery to us.In fact the bank handling the transaction was to allow the planes to be flown from the USA,but the news of the war broke out in 1967,the insurance company cabled for the cancellation of the deal as they will not be able to cover the risk cost of aircrafts being flown into war zone.
So,we asked the manufacturers to take the two aircrafts back to their country and hold on for six months with the hope of that the war will end within the requested time frame,but the war didn’t end as thought.We consequently asked for refund and they deducted some money and refunded the balance which was deposited at the London branch of African Continental Bank(ACB).

When the government took over the operations of ACB,we still hoped for the refund but unfortunately were disappointed that the Federal government took over the whole money and we lost everything.”

Further in line with our historical perspective,it will also be pertinent some of the later years reformists in the likes of Engr Onyereri and Harold Demuren who advertently sponsored some far reaching regulations that eventually steered the industry towards greater autonomy with the passage of the 2005 Civil Aviation Act,which I was also a prime participant of in my capacity as an Aviation sub chair in then House of Representatives.

As we mark this great century milestone,and with the clear evidential pathway set out by the current managers of the industry under the indomitable leadership of Honourable Minister, I do not see the sky posing any limitations as they say,but rather availing new vistas of limitless growth opportunities.

CONGRATULATIONS.

Hon Chidi Nwogu
Former member House of Representatives & presently Governing Council member
,African Aviation and Aerospace University,Abuja.

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