Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Sunday Dare, on Saturday revealed a number of plans by the Ministry to harness the potentials of the Nigerian youth, including corps members in all states of the federation.

Speaking to journalists after meeting with the corps members and camp officials at the auditorium of the Batch C corps members at the NYSC Camp in Keffi, Nassarawa State, the Minister said: “Part of the next level agenda is that we live in a 21st century economy, driven by digital technology. We’ve found out that there’s a digital skills gap in Nigeria and Africa; there’s need to equip our youth and graduates with that extra digital skill so that they can be competitive when they get to the job market.

“We need to make them more employable because the question of employability is critical, so the ministry has conceived of a program called DY.NG, Digital Youth Nigeria, for digital literacy and digital skills acquisition, and in the next few weeks, we are going to roll out, we have 64 digital hubs across the country, we are going to activate 4 other youth enterprise centres, 4 in each geo-political zones and we hope that our youth can benefit from that.”

Also disclosing plans for the corps members, he said they will graduate into a two-month programme after which they will get certificates in various digital skills to improve their employability.

The Minister added that the Ministry’s programmes on youth development have become imperative considering the population of youth in the country.

He said: “When you look at the sheer population of youth in this country almost 68 to70 million, you also look at the percentage of unemployment and the large number of those that are unemployed are the youth.

“You look at the projections even by the United Nations. There’s an agenda 2030 to empower our youths. You know that the greatest resource that this country has that needs to be harnessed is its youth.

“We say the youths are the leaders of tomorrow but if you don't train them today, if you don't equip them today, they cannot lead tomorrow.

“We have a passion for youth development, in the areas of skills acquisition, entrepreneurship, employment creation, leadership and mentoring.”

Dare added that the Ministry is in partnership with some Federal Ministries and the Central Bank of Nigeria to achieve all of the Ministry’s vision for youth development.

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