The European Union Delegation to Nigeria and their Business Operating in Nigeria are strengthening collaboration towards helping to address challenges of human capital in both public and private sectors.
The initiative, EU says, will further help to address the skills gap in the employment sector and leverage Nigeria’s huge population of young people to drive economic prosperity.
This came to the fore at a Stakeholders Conference hosted by European Business Chambers in Nigeria.
The European Union Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Samuela Isopi, says youth, education, employability, and skills (YEES!) are also a top concern and top priority for the European Union.
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Ambassador Isopi described human capital as key to Nigeria’s development, stating the EU, its Members States and EU businesses recognised this in their engagements with the Nigerian government. She says both the European Union and Eurocham Nigeria are playing leading roles in the Nigeria Jubilee Fellowship Programme (NJFP), a collaborative initiative between the Nigerian Government and key stakeholders to build a reservoir of innovative and employable skills in the country.
The programme targets 100,000 youths over a five-year period, she says On the forthcoming general elections, the ambassador says youth empowerment is critical in the perspective of the process Consequently, she announced that the EU has put the youth and their role in democratic governance first, through programmes aimed at mobilizing Nigerian youth to register and vote in the election.