As part of its commitment to allowing for increased youth participation in making key national decisions in governance, economic development, and national security, the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development will be holding a National Youth Conference in Abuja from October 12 to 15, 2021.

The conference, approved by President Muhammadu Buhari will be the first of its kind in Nigeria and will be completely private-sector driven, with the government creating the enabling environment for the private sector to contribute its quota to initiatives that will promote the place of the youth in nation-building, governance, economy, peace, and national security.

A statement signed by the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development in Abuja said the event provides another opportunity to dialogue, harmonise and capture the goals, concerns, aspirations, plans, and contributions of the Nigerian youth towards the creation of an effective and efficient approach for future government engagements and implementation of solutions for the delivery of good governance to all Nigerians.

The conference will bring together over 370 youths from the 36 states of the Federation including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and over 200 high-level officials from the three-tiers of government and some of their agencies, high achieving youths, chieftains from various economic sectors, multilateral agencies, social enterprise organisations and experts in academic, religious and traditional areas.

According to the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, “The goal of this intervention is the development of an effective planning and delivery model for coordinating an inclusive national youth dialogue with an underpinning objective to reform the mindset of our youth towards government processes and the development of an integrated feedback mechanism that conveys the bottlenecks and hardships faced by young Nigerians.

“Standing in the very words of Mr. President, our mission is to drive home the promise that this administration will do everything to make sure that Nigeria works for our youth and that is what this laudable initiative seeks to kick start,” Dare added.

(Nigerian Tribune)

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