The Federal Government has called on Nigerians aged 15 to 35 to register with the National Youth Data Bank (NYDB), saying the exercise will help identify their skills, needs and locations and connect them with opportunities in the public and private sectors.
The Minister of Youth Development, Comrade Ayodele Olawande, made the call on Tuesday in Abuja at the launch of the National Youth Data Bank project.
Olawande said the registration would cover youths in both the formal and informal sectors, including those in agriculture, sports and the creative and technology industries. He said reliable data on young Nigerians would help the government bridge the gap between it and the youth population and improve the planning and implementation of youth programmes.
According to him, the database would help answer critical questions such as “who are our young people?”, “where are they?”, “what can they do?” and “what opportunities do they need?” He said the initiative was a continuous government programme and was not being introduced for electoral purposes.
“We also want to get the formal and the informal youth to make sure that they are part of this. We want everybody. We even want to know the youth in agriculture. We want to know the youth in sport. We want to know all those in creative tech and all that, so that even when we say some people need jobs, we know, okay, these people need skills,” he said.
Also speaking, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of POGMA Nigeria Limited, the technical partner of the project, Otunba Oluyinka Akerele, said registration points had been created across educational institutions and would be extended to local government areas and wards nationwide.
He said the exercise would target youths in secondary schools, polytechnics, universities and colleges of education, as well as those in the informal sector and rural communities. “For the Nigerian youth registration, we have created cluster points in schools, polytechnics, universities, College of Education.
These are targets for the formal sectors,” he said. Akerele said enumerators would be deployed across the 774 local government areas to register youths, including those in hard-to-reach communities.
“All we appeal to our youth to do is to embrace the programme, go out en masse and be registered. It is only when you are registered that we know who you are, where you are, and how you can benefit from the supposed government dividend of democracy,” he said.
Akerele said the registration was open to Nigerians aged 15 to 35 years, in line with the Nigerian Youth Policy. “You are addressed as a youth in Nigeria once you are 15, and once you are 35, you still remain a youth,” he said.
He added that the database would be regularly updated, with those below 15 captured when they attain the eligible age. “For those that are not up to 15, that’s why you have an updating, just like you have with INEC. Once they are 15, our enumerators are there to capture them,” Akerele said.
Daily Trust
