TheCable

The ministry of youth and sports development has collaborated with Microsoft and the Technology for Social Change and Development Initiative (Tech4Dev) to train 36,000 youths in digital skills for one year.

The federal government had partnered with Microsoft in May 2021 to accelerate the economic sustainability plan (ESP) on a deepened digital economy that was anchored on connectivity, skilling and digital transformation.

The sports ministry in a statement said this is in line with its commitment to creating access to decent work and entrepreneurship opportunities and platforms for Africans through digital skills empowerment and advocacy.

The ministry noted that the traineeship is under the emerging markets model initiative (EMMI), a multi-year, multi-stakeholder, private-public, non-profit partnership designed by Microsoft to build the capacity of key government ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs).

EMMI aims to offer sustainable, scalable, reskilling and employment services aligned to the local labour markets by providing access to digital skills training, from digital literacy to advanced training for young people in Nigeria between the ages of 16-35 years.

The initiative targets 36,000 youths over one year, using a virtual and physical learning approach, in various training centres across Nigeria and would be achieved through multi-year collaboration with four strategic federal government ministries and 12 state governments.

Speaking on the collaboration, Diwura Oladepo, co-founder and executive of Tech4Dev, said: “As an Organisation committed to creating access to decent work opportunities and platforms to help provide economic empowerment for youths across Nigeria and Africa as a whole, I remain a proud proponent of the power of digital skills training as a tool to achieve this.

“This partnership brings us one step closer to levelling the unemployment rate in Nigeria.”