How NUTM, AfDB are Pioneering Youth Skilling in Africa
President of the African Development Bank Group Dr Akinwumi Adesina and the leadership of the Nigerian University of Technology and Management (NUTM) say equipping Africa’s youth with quality education and the skills needed to meet the challenges of the future is critical to ensure the development of the continent and the world.
“We are not doing well enough for Africa’s 477 million youths. We are not harnessing their skills, talent and creativity,” Dr Adesina told members of the university’s Board who called on him at the Bank’s headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Launched in 2020 in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos as a not-for-profit academic institution, the university is building a strong brand with world class standards to produce technology and management leaders.
By 2050, one in every four people in the world will be African and therefore, “the quality of young Africans will be key to the development of Africa and the world,” said Dr Omobola Johnson, Dean, NUTM Scholars Program and Governing Board Member, who was accompanied by the president of the University Dr Babs Omotowa and Board member Demola Adeyemi Bero.
“We are making progress building a great institution in Africa, to solve Africa’s problems” said Dr Babs Omotowa, the president of the University.
“We must become the workforce of the world,” Adesina said, pledging more cooperation with NUTM and other African learning institutions. “We have a lot of work to do making sure they (Africa’s youth) have the right skills in the new world trajectory.”
The meeting was also attended by among others, Vice President for Agriculture, human and social development Dr Beth Dunford, Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure, and Industrialisation Solomon Quaynor.