Featured

Ministry Moves To Bridge Digital Skills Gap In Nigerian Youth

Published

7 years ago

January 20, 2020

…Partners WILCO Under its Work Experience Programme

Joel Ajayi

In line with his resolve to ensure that the Youth Development mandate of the Ministry goes hand in hand with its Sports Development mandate, Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Sunday Dare, Monday in Abuja, led senior officials of the Ministry in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), with a private organisation WILCO, to provide digital skills for the Nigerian Youth.

Speaking at the signing, the Minister Mr. Sunday Dare expressed joy that the Ministry’s months of planning and strategizing on Youth Development was way on its way to yielding results.

He said, “Today’s event is a milestone as it coincides with our transition from the planning stage to implementation stage. My administration spent its initial months on planning and strategizing and I am pleased to announce that we are now at phase were the plans are translated into action that will benefit the Nigerian youth.

“Like other components of the DEEL initiative to which the Work Experience Programme (WEP) belongs, this MoU is the product of weeks, and even months of constant interaction between the Ministry’s team and that of WILCO. Such painstaking efforts ensured that the fine points were carefully worked out to ensure that the Nigerian youth emerge the winner from this relationship,” he added.

Addressing concerns on the transparency of the process would be business as usual, the Minister said, “WILCO is partnering with the Ministry for the selection, training and engagement of the successful ones among these youth and I am elated that the organization shares the same values with us such that the selection process is made as transparent as humanly possibly having fully adopted technology to deliver a scientific system of shortlisting beneficiaries. In the Ministry’s effort to equip the youth contemporary challenges we are doing our best to ensure that everyone has an equal shot at benefiting,” he assured.

He also expressed hope that the level of transparency that will be built into the DEEL programmes will be further deepened with the launch of the Nigerian Online Youth Assembly (NOYA) platform, which is now at the final stage of testing before going live.

NOYA, he explained, is an aggregator website and a one stop shop to connect Nigerian youths while further simplifying the selection process for WEP related opportunities.

“We believe that facilitating transparency in this manner will further boost confidence in the process and encourage other organizations and stakeholders to make their own investment in our youth, who are the greatest resource that will grow Nigeria into an economic power of the future”.

The Managing Director of WILCO, Tokunbo Lawal while speaking earlier, highlighted the benefits of the MoU to the Nigerian Youth to include; gaining employable skills, gaining contacts of organisations they would not have on their own, putting learnt skills into practice, making decisions on their work direction among others. She enumerated the areas the MoU covers to include Plumbing, Meter Installation, Electricals, Facilities Management among others.

Share on Facebook

Featured

Alake Inaugurates Nigeria-US Solid Minerals Committee, Dismisses $700bn Claim, Says No Assets Sold

Published

5 days ago

October 28, 2026

The Gleamer

Joel Ajayi

The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, on Tuesday inaugurated the Nigeria-United States Committee on Strategic Cooperation in the Solid Minerals Sector in Abuja, dismissing reports that Nigeria sold $700 billion worth of solid minerals to the US.

The inauguration followed the strategic cooperation framework established between Nigeria and the United States during the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.

In a statement issued on Wednesday by the Head PRESS and Public Relations Department Mrs. Kania Maliki Andeyaba stated that, Alake in the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, signed with the US is a government-to-government platform to facilitate business-to-business engagements between American investors and Nigerian local operators, not a sale of assets.

Harping on the importance of the solid minerals sector to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic diversification agenda, he noted that the administration was committed to reducing dependence on a mono-product economy through the sustainable development of Nigeria’s vast mineral resources.

According to him, the Nigeria–US partnership as a strategic initiative to attract investment, promote technology transfer, strengthen local mineral processing and create employment opportunities.

“There is no sale of any Nigerian asset. There’s nothing exchanging hands,” Alake declared.

“We created a platform to facilitate mingling of US investment ventures with Nigeria’s local operators. It is in the public domain. We signed it in public and published it in four or five national newspapers.”

The Minister said reports claiming the US was coming to take over Nigeria’s minerals and security architecture were untrue at best and products of riotous imagination at worst.

Explaining the policy thrust, Alake said Africa has historically held the short end of the stick in global economic transactions, and Nigeria is determined to change that model.

“We have the resources, the critical elements the world needs to transit to clean energy. So we are creating a new paradigm — you bring your capital, expertise and technology, to match with our natural resources and create a win-win situation . The investor gains, Nigeria gains.’’he said.

Nigeria, he stressed, had operated a mono-cultural economy dependent on oil, while solid minerals were exploited informally — with ores taken “from pit to port” without value addition.

Alake said government has now made local processing mandatory, refusing to grant mineral titles to investors without a clear pathway to processing in Nigeria.

He said the policy led to the springing up of processing factories, including the largest lithium processing plant in West Africa commissioned recently in Nasarawa by the Vice President, and informed the formation of the African Minerals Strategy Group.

Alake noted that investor confidence has returned due to macro-economic reforms by President Bola Tinubu that guarantee security of tenure and repatriation of profits.

He charged the committee to discharge its assignment responsibly, saying its work is strategic to achieving the President’s $1 trillion economy target.

To this end, he told the Committee to ensure effective coordination, identify investment opportunities and translate the framework into measurable outcomes capable of positioning Nigeria as a competitive player in the global solid minerals industry.

In his welcome address, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Engr. Faruk Yusuf Yabo, said the inauguration translates growing bilateral engagements into a structured framework for practical cooperation and investment mobilization

Economic Officer at the US Embassy, Jonathan Baas, said President Donald Trump has prioritized three areas for US embassies — energy, artificial intelligence/super intelligence, and critical minerals.

Baas said Washington’s direction is to work with partners to secure critical supply chains while ensuring partners capture value.

“We just signed a contract today on looking into building AI data centres in Nigeria at the Nigerian Economic Summit. That’s the direction Washington wants us to go,” he said.

In his vote of thanks, CEO/Managing Director of Nigeria Solid Minerals Company, NSMC said that the committee

is expected to coordinate implementation, facilitate investment and monitor progress towards achieving the objectives of the Nigeria–US cooperation framework.

The inauguration reinforces the Federal Government’s commitment to repositioning the solid minerals sector as a key driver of economic diversification, industrial development and national prosperity under President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

Share on Facebook