The European Union (EU) has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting Nigeria’s efforts to develop a skilled workforce capable of attracting investment, saying the availability of qualified labour remains a major consideration for investors.

Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday at the National Skills and Industry Alignment Roundtable Q2 Series on the Role of Data in Job Creation, Coordination and Linkages, Head of Cooperation at the European Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Massimo De Luca, said Nigeria possesses enormous human potential but must bridge the gap between available talent and industry needs.

According to him, the country faces a shortage of skilled workers for major investment projects despite having a large pool of untapped talent.

“We have a shortage of skilled labour when it comes to big investment projects.

“On the other hand, we have a lot of untapped talent that is not adequately recognised. Those are realities that investors take into account,” De Luca said.

He also commended the Office of the Vice-President for spearheading reforms aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s skills development ecosystem and improving workforce readiness.

Also speaking at the event, Group Chief Economist and Managing Director of Research and Trade Intelligence at African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Dr Yemi Kale, said Nigeria’s fragmented labour market data continues to undermine productivity, employment and economic planning.

Kale, a former Statistician-General of the Federation, observed that Nigeria’s youthful population with about 70 per cent of citizens below the age of 30, offers tremendous economic potential but also presents a significant policy challenge.

He stressed that unlocking this demographic advantage would require improved education, stronger institutions and greater capacity to absorb young people into productive employment.

He argued that the country urgently needs an integrated data architecture capable of linking skills development with labour market opportunities to enhance productivity and long-term competitiveness.

“Across Nigeria today, we have employers that are searching for skill, and at precisely the same time, millions of Nigerians are searching for opportunities they can access. Our educational institutions continue to graduate thousands of young people every year.

“Yet businesses across multiple sectors in the country report persistent shortages in critical technical and vocational skills. So, employers are searching, workers are searching, training institutions are searching, policymakers are searching and investors are searching,” Kale said.

For his part, Special Adviser to the Vice-President on Workforce Development, Rimam Nuhu, said the National Council on Skills is pursuing evidence-based policymaking to address skills shortages and mismatches through a comprehensive national database.

Nuhu explained that the proposed database would provide government with reliable intelligence to identify gaps in the labour market, improve workforce planning and boost national productivity.

“What this database does is provide government with evidence-based recommendations when it comes to policy regarding skills development. Skills development is an input for job creation,” he said.

“Currently, there are a lot of skills mismatches, there are a lot of skills shortages, and what this database will do is give us the intelligence required for us to identify exactly where those shortages are,” he said.

Nuhu added that the database will help improve productivity and support better-targeted policymaking on skills development and, ultimately, job creation.

Earlier, Strategic Partnership Lead in the Office of the Vice-President, Afolabi Imokhuede, said the objective of the roundtable was not to create new policies but to strengthen existing systems by ensuring that labour market data is effectively harnessed for national development.

He noted that although government agencies and institutions generate substantial administrative and labour market data, the information remains scattered across different platforms, limiting its usefulness for policymaking.

According to him, the series of roundtable engagements is designed to transform raw data into actionable intelligence capable of forecasting labour market demand and supporting industrialisation and economic competitiveness.

Also speaking, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Coordination and Delivery, Akubo Adegbe, said the meeting was convened to address the persistent fragmentation of labour market information across public institutions and the private sector.

Adegbe observed that while enormous volumes of workforce data are generated daily, poor coordination prevents policymakers from obtaining a comprehensive picture of labour market realities.

“If our first Roundtable challenged us to better align skills with industry, this second Roundtable challenges us to better align information with action,” he said.

The Federal Government’s renewed focus on labour market intelligence comes at a time when Nigeria continues to grapple with unemployment and widespread skills mismatch, with many graduates struggling to secure jobs even as employers report shortages of qualified workers in key sectors.

As part of the strategy, the proposed National Skills Database is expected to serve as the backbone of the planned Nigerian Skills Observatory, which will provide real-time labour market intelligence to support workforce planning, skills development and evidence-based job creation policies.