UNICEF, FG plan to make 20m Nigerians richer

The Federal Government of Nigeria is set to partner with the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) to empower 20 million Nigerian youths by 2030.

Tagged: “Generation Unlimited”, the initiative is targeted at 20 million people between the ages of 10 and 24 out of the nation’s 65 million young people.

Peter Hawkins, the Country Representative of UNICEF in Nigeria, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday.

According to him, the initiative is also being replicated in many other countries with 1.8 billion young people targeted around the World.

With specific reference to Nigeria, Hawkins said that the Generation Unlimited programmes were aimed at developing the capacity of young Nigerians to be better positioned as leaders of tomorrow.

He said that if the youths were not equipped with the right skills, especially in view of the ongoing digitisation of the world, they would be unable to bring value to the future of Nigeria.

Hawkins added that such initiatives would also help in turning the youth away from drugs or crime.

“Nigeria has 65 million people between the ages of 10 and 24, so young people of Nigeria are more importantly the future. That generation would shape the future of Nigeria.

“What Generation Unlimited is trying to do is to first act as a platform between the government, the United Nations and the International Community and the private sector.

“Out of the 65 million young people, Generation Unlimited is trying to help 20 million of those over the next 10 years to step over the generation that they are in to be able to meet their own ambitions and be valuable commodities in Nigeria.

“What is going to define the future of any country, particularly Nigeria is the digital platform – access to data, access to digital information.

“It is not only expanding the digital platform but expanding young people’s access to that platform.

“There are initiatives like School-2-School connectivity, looking at how we can bring digital learning into the schools, communities and ensure that young people’s skills around digital platforms come to the fore,” he said.

Reference

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