The Federal Government has moved to place the private sector at the centre of its strategy for tackling unemployment, seeking stronger collaboration with businesses to create sustainable jobs and address the skills gaps confronting young Nigerians.

Ministry of Youth Development said the approach became necessary following lessons from the National Youth Employment Action Plan (NIYEAP) 2021–2024 and other interventions, which showed that government could not address the youth employment challenge alone.

Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, who spoke during the opening of a two-day private sector strategy on youth employment workshop in Lagos, said the private sector must play a central role because of its capacity to drive enterprise growth, investment, productivity and job creation.

He said the shared interest provided a basis for a stronger government-private sector partnership on youth employment and Nigeria’s broader economic development agenda.

Olawande said that the workshop, attended by representatives of the private sector, International Labour Organisation (ILO), GIZ, MacArthur Foundation, Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), development partners, government institutions and youth-focused organisations, aimed at developing a coordinated private-sector strategy for youth job creation.

According to him, one of the major gaps in previous frameworks was the absence of a sufficiently developed and coordinated private-sector strategy specifically focused on youth employment.

The minister, represented by the ministry’s Deputy Director, Ebiho Agun, said the strategy would examine the constraints limiting businesses from employing more young people, including policy and regulatory barriers, infrastructure, financing, skills shortages and other factors affecting investment and business growth.

He said the government would also seek private-sector input on future labour market demand, the skills employers are likely to require over the next five to 10 years, and investment opportunities capable of generating employment at scale.

Olawande said gender and inclusion would form part of the strategy, stressing the need to ensure that jobs created are accessible to young women, persons with disabilities and other groups facing barriers to entering and remaining in the labour market.

He further disclosed that the Private Sector Technical Working Group, launched in 2024, would serve as a platform for sustaining government-business engagement beyond the workshop.

Olawande said the objective was to move beyond identifying challenges to establishing practical actions, clear responsibilities and mechanisms for measuring results.