450 Niger State Youths, Women, Acquire Digital Skills

As part of measures to provide gainful employment for unskilled residents, 450 indigent youths and women in Niger State have acquired digital training skills. The beneficiaries who were drawn from the various local government areas of the state are expected to put into practice the skills they have acquired and, in turn, become employers of labour.

The graduation ceremony of the recipients of the training took place on Tuesday June 25, in Suleja Local Government Area, where dignitaries and the organisers of the training witnessed the activities and offered words of advice to the beneficiaries.

Ali Johnson-Onoja, Managing Director of Ubelle/Neo Cloud Consortium, organisers of the training, made it known during the graduation ceremony, that the programme was a Digital Skill training and inauguration of an Internship Business Pitching programme.

Johnson-Onoja explained that the beneficiaries were selected from amongst the more than the 900 young people who indicated interest, when the programme began in December 2023. He noted that the graduands have been equipped with the tools and knowledge necessary to thrive in the digital age.

Johnson-Onoja also stressed that the Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Education, had launched the World Bank-supported IDEAS project, to enhance the country’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training system.

He added that the Trainers, obtained various certificates in the basic, intermediary and advance categories from internationally recognised certification bodies and that the graduands would be mentored into getting jobs in the evolving digital market place, and as well make many of them self-employed individuals, business owners and entrepreneurs

The Emir of Suleja, Muhammad Awwal- Ibrahim, represented by Dalhatu Makama-Zazzau, Suleja, and District Head of Magajiya, commended the organisers for bringing the programme to his domain. He appealed to other NGOs and philanthropists to bring more of such programmes to his Emirate. He warned the participants against deploying the skills for criminal activities in the cyber space, which he said would endanger their lives.