The National Vice Chairman (South-East) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Ijeomah Arodiogbu, has declared that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s skill acquisition and youth empowerment policies will produce the next generation of global entrepreneurs and a self-empowered Nigerian workforce.
Speaking on the administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda, Arodiogbu urged young Nigerians to take full advantage of the multiple federal programmes designed to equip them with practical, market-relevant skills for employment, entrepreneurship and participation in the global digital economy.
“President Tinubu’s deliberate investment in skills development is laying the foundation for a new generation of self-reliant entrepreneurs and a highly competitive workforce that can compete anywhere in the world,” Arodiogbu said. “These policies are not mere slogans; they are producing real pathways from training to enterprise and income generation.”
He highlighted several flagship initiatives under the Tinubu administration:
- Nigerian Youth Academy (NiYA): The programme has equipped 239,726 youths with digital, employability and practical skills. Over 1.2 million certificates have been downloaded from the platform. Under NiYA StartUp, 200 youth-led businesses received ₦1 million each, while another 200 informal-sector operators received ₦500,000 each. The newly launched NiYA Gig platform connects young Nigerians to local and global digital work opportunities.
- Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET): More than 1.3 million applications were received, with over 960,000 youths verified. About 160,000 have been matched into programmes and more than 73,000 trainees enrolled across over 1,700 accredited centres. Stipends totalling ₦3.41 billion have been disbursed. The programme emphasises practical training, starter packs and access to single-digit interest loans.
- Renewed Hope Vocational and Skills Training Programme: 18,510 beneficiaries across the 36 states and the FCT completed intensive training in 14 high-demand trades (including welding, fashion design, electrical installation, catering, plumbing and automobile technology) and received starter packs to establish their own businesses. Each participant also received a ₦60,000 transport allowance.
- 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) Programme: Aimed at training three million young Nigerians in high-demand digital skills such as software engineering, data science, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and cloud computing to create tech jobs and export talent.
- SMEDAN initiatives: The agency has launched programmes targeting over 100,000 young entrepreneurs annually with training, incubation, mentorship, finance and market access, including weekly startup hackathons offering seed funding.
Arodiogbu also pointed to complementary efforts such as the Labour Employment and Empowerment Programme (LEEP), Nigeria Jubilee Fellows Programme and reforms to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) that now emphasise entrepreneurship, financial literacy and specialised career streams.
He stressed that the combination of skills training, starter packs, grants, digital platforms and access to finance is shifting the paradigm from job-seeking to job-creation. “When young people acquire relevant skills and the tools to turn those skills into businesses, Nigeria produces not just employees but global entrepreneurs and a self-empowered workforce capable of driving national prosperity,” he said.
Arodiogbu called on youths in the South-East and across the country to actively apply for the available windows, noting that eligibility requirements are transparent and the opportunities are designed to leave no one behind.
