Sports Ministry to discover talents through technology - Dare
The Minister of Youth and Sports Development Mr. Sunday Dare has again reiterated his commitment to harness the vast potentials in the Nigeria Youth through digital technology.
He made this known when he visited the Batch C corps members at the NYSC camp in Keffi, Nassarawa State over the weekend.
Speaking to journalists after meeting with the corps members and camp officials at the camp's auditorium, 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 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,” he said.
Also disclosing plans for the corps members, he said they will graduate into a 2 month program after which they will get certificates in various digital skills to improve their employability.
The Minister added that the Ministry's programs on youth development have become imperative considering the population of youth in the country.
"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,” he concluded.