Again: Sport Minister signs MoU with two Coys on Youth Development Initiatives
Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Sunday Dare, today, signs a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with two different firms namely: WILCO Group and Junior Achievers Nigeria (JAN) on youth development initiative, signalling the actualisation of the Ministry’s objective for skills acquisition and entrepreneurship under its Work Experience Programme, W.E.P.
According to the Minister, ‘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 Group and JAN. Such painstaking ensured that the fine points were carefully worked out to ensure that the Nigerian youth emerge the winner from this relationship’.
He expressed satisfaction with the two firms, adding that they both share the same values with the Ministry, stressing that the selection process is transparent using adopted technology to deliver a scientific system of short listing beneficiaries. He added that the Ministry is going into partnership with about 45 organisations, carefully selected to train our teeming youths in the country in order to make them productive and employable.
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Mr Dare noted that the ministry had so far received about 42, 000 applicants and 250 were successful to commence the first phase of the youth development programme. He said: ‘The training in the first instance is for 3 weeks and later graduate to 3 months after which is a pathway to gainful employment’.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Gabriel Aduda said that the ministry is saddled with the mandate of Youth and Sports Development. He opined that the Ministry is being deliberately repositioned to pursue the agenda of youth development, which ultimately culminates into agenda of sports development. The Ministry, the Permanent Secretary stated, is ready to partner with the private sector who share similar vision and core mandate of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development in achieving its noble goal.
In their separate remarks, the Managing Director of WILLCO, Mrs. Tokunbo Lawal, expressed her organisation’s delight to partner with the Ministry in contributing to the development of youth. She stated that her firm is on a mission to fill the skill gap and have a strong pipeline of network that will make the youth get employment easily.
Similarly, speaking on a related issue, the Executive Director of JAN, Simisola Nwogugu stated that JAN is twenty years in Nigeria and need to engage the government to equip the youth with digital and entrepreneurial skills to make them employable.
Sunday Dare emphasized that President Muhammadu Buhari’s charge is to keep the youth productively engaged through employable skills relevant to the Nigerian society. This will be a major deliverable to lifting one million Nigerians out of poverty line.
Olatunji John
Asst. Chief Information Officer
