The collaboration between the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) and the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) through the Technical Skills Development Project (TSDP) has opened up numerous opportunities for young Nigerians.

This project serves as a crucial step towards empowering young Nigerians by providing them with training in industry-demand skills. At the sixth graduation ceremony of the NECA Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Academy in Lagos, Director-General of NECA, Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, said 75 youths were trained on artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, 3D animation and data analytics at no cost for a period of four months with daily feeding and stipends for transportation.

The idea, he said, was to “take them out of the street to make the community safer for us all. The more we take them out of the street, the safer it will be, and the more empowered they are, the better the economy.”

According to him, it is part of the association’s contribution to equip young Nigerians with employability skills. On what the government should do to support youth empowerment and skills development, Oyerinde said: “It is funny that the government is giving licenses to universities in 2025, when countries overseas are running a dual model in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), where the focus is basically on, not just university degrees.

“By the time you graduate from the university, you start looking for a job, so why don’t we focus on the dual TVET model, where they go to the university, and they also partner with the industry to take them. In a week, they spend some of the days in school and the remaining days in the industry. As they move on to their final year, they are already skilled, doing what they should do.

“It is worrisome that while we are promoting technical skills development, at the other end, we are massively licensing universities; it is a contradiction. Let us focus on TVET, that is where development lies. While we are not disparaging university education, we should give more effort to TVET as it matters.”

This is just as the Lagos State Government has expressed its readiness to make the state the talent capital of Africa’s digital economy. Lagos State Deputy Governor, Obafemi Hamzat, in his remarks at the event, said the state government was doing more to ensure the citizens are not left behind in the digital economy.

Represented by the Commissioner for Innovation, Science and Technology, Olatubosun Alake, he commended NECA on its sustained commitment to nation-building through human capital development. He said the alignment of industry and skill development was what Nigeria needs to thrive in the age of AI and digital transformation.

Noting that the graduation was a call to action to solve problems and shape the future of Nigeria, he listed some of the programmes, such as entrepreneurship, empowerment and innovation, among others, put together by the Lagos State government to uplift the youths. To the graduates, Hamzat urged them to have the right mindset and never to stop learning, making sure they get extremely good at what they do.

“That is the only way you can differentiate yourself in today’s crowded market. If you are very good at what you do, value will chase you. Skills attract value globally. Keep on learning and be very good at what you do,” he said.

Commissioner, Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment, Akinyemi Ajigbotafe, who was represented by the ministry’s Director on Employment, Lateef Shitta, said that as the world continues to evolve rapidly through technology, the relevance of ICT could not be overstated, noting that it is the backbone of productivity, innovation and entrepreneurship.

He said platforms such as the NECA Academy were witnessing the rise of a digitally-skilled generation ready to drive economic growth, job creation and technological advancement.

He reaffirmed the state’s steadfastness through the ministry in its mission to nurture a future-ready workforce, even as he highlighted some of the opportunities the ministry provides, all aimed at connecting young persons to mentorship, jobs and enterprise development pathways.

Zonal Director, ITF, Ojo Akindele, said the training would impact the Nigerian economy and society. He urged the graduands to go out and be job creators, particularly by volunteering their skills. “That will open doors for them”, he said.