By: Our Correspondent
ABUJA, Nigeria – The Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development has reiterated its willingness to partner and collaborate with the African Development Bank Group to enhance engagement of youth in sustainable socio- economic activities.
The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Hon. Sunday Dare, disclosed when he received a delegation from the Group in his office on a business development mission in Nigeria.
Speaking on of the Minister, the Permanent Secretary, Mr Olusade Adesola, said the ministry is working on several programmes aim at empowering the youth in identifiable occupational fields for job creation and wealth generation.
According to him, this initiative is part of the ministry’s mandate of lifting Nigerian youths out of poverty in the next ten years.
Speaking further, Adesola asserted that partnership from the AFDB would be mostly cherished to assist and add Filip to the commitment and milestone achievements recorded in youth development by this administration.
The Permanent Secretary disclosed some of the highlighted vocational programmes for collaboration to include: agricultural and vocational skills acquisition, enhancing capacity for youth officers in the Ministry and capacity building of Coaches to impact talented youth in sports.
He expressed confidence that these programmes when implemented consistently and sustainably would take the youth out of the streets, drawing similar paradigm to tested evidences in France, which deliberately introduced Night Leagues, the national youth games, Digital Online youth assembly, among others.
Responding, Leader of the AfDB delegation, Mrs. Doroba Hendrina, said the primary objective of their visit to the Ministry was to explore possible ways of collaborating in developing youth potentials.
She disclosed that the AfDB corporate plan was to devise strategies of linking the Ministry of Labour and Employment and Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, SMEDAN in areas of similar functions.