The World Bank Nigeria Office has said it plans to train 200,000 youth under its Innovation Development and Effectiveness in the Acquisition of Skills (IDEAS) projects.
The IDEAS project, which is a 5-year programme, aims to improve skills acquisition in Nigeria, using a comprehensive approach and addressing key aspects of the skills development delivery system.
Task Team Leader of the programme, Dilip Parajuli, who stated this, Friday in Abuja, added that despite the challenges, World Bank is on course to achieve its objectives.
He said, “The class of youths we target is a large number. As I said, about ten million youths are not in school, and also unemployed. So those are the ones we target. We will start with a small number, may be 200,000, which is not a big number if you think about it. But the point is, it will be the last pilot to show proof of evidence that it can work. And that’s why there’s been a few thousand selected.
Parajuli, who is an economist with the Bank, said the counterpart funding by the government would determine whether the number of youth to be trained would be scaled up to 500,000.
On her part, Director Technology and Science Education in the Federal Ministry of Education, Dr. Mrs. Muyibat Adenike Olodo, said the government is committed to ensuring youth acquire skills that would make them employable.
Olodo, who represented the minister, noted that the commitment and passion that the President has for the youths, especially in the area of skill acquisition is the driving force for the project.
National Coordinator of IDEAS project, Mrs. Blessing Ogwu, said though the IDEAS programme was approved in 2020 it didn’t start until 2022.
The national coordinator attributed the delay in the implementation to delayed disbursement of the funds.
On the project achieving its objectives, the National Coordinator said, “well, for the target yes. Again, the colleges at the state level were not well trained. When you give a person an assignment without equipping the person properly, there may be a little challenge. Those were the things that affected the slowness of the project.
