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Sports Ministry, Junior Achievement Nigeria Join Forces For Youth Development

Published

7 years ago

January 20, 2020

Joel Ajayi

Continuing on its quest to ensure that the Nigerian Youth is equipped with the needed digital skills to compete favourably in the world, Ministry of Youth and Sports Development has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Junior Achievement Nigeria (Worldwide), the non profit organisation in the world, leading in financial literacy training, digital skills acquisition and entrepreneurship for the Youth.

The Minister revealed that the signing of the MoU is a culmination of several meetings between the Ministry and the Junior Achievement Nigeria, in the past several months with an overriding passion and concern on both sides is for the Nigerian Youth.

Highlighting the importance of the partnership, the Minister said, “Based on data and statistics, you will know that clearly there is a digital skills gap not just in Nigeria, but also across Africa. So, there is a need for us to ensure that we give our Youth the necessary digital skills to be able to produce the digital tools they need to become entrepreneur, self-starters and also gain employment.

“Once again this brings us to an important juncture in an effort to leverage on some public-private partnership and also to seek out strategic implementation partner as we work not just to empower our youth but to invest in them to providing them with requisite skills necessary for engagement in the 21st century digital economy.

Recalling the President’s charge to keep the productively busy, he said ways to keep the Youth busy includes making them employable more, more knowledgeable and equipping them with what they need to be able to compete in the world.

“Yes we are about Sports, but we are also about Youth Development. This understanding and partnership with Junior Achievement we believe, will go a long way in helping to bridge the digital skills gaps among the Youths of this country.

He reiterated the Ministry’s commitment to playing a key part in the process which is embedded in the DEEL initiative which looks at Digital literacy and Digital skills, Enterpreneurship, Employment, Leadership and Mentoring. He said the Ministry would leverage on the 64 digital hubs owned by Junior Achievement Nigeria across the country in conjunction with about 24 Youth Development centres the Ministry hopes to bring on board across the country, with others centres as will be made available by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The Executive Director Mrs. Simisola Nwogugu responding, thanked the Minister and said that in line with the organisation’s 20th anniversary celebration, the organisation is scaling up the number of Youth to equip with digital and entrepreneurial skills and would do just that with this partnership.

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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.

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