The Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, has promised to initiate digital literacy programmes, technical skills empowerment and leadership insight to address unemployment.

Mr Olawande made the pledge at the commemoration of the Africa and National Youth Day celebration on Friday in Abuja.

The theme of the day is “Educate an African Fit for the 21th Century” with sub-theme “Building a resilient education system: A new hope for Nigerian youths.’’

According to him, the ministry is making huge progress on the National Youth Investment Fund.

He noted, “We know that with the new era and the change in leadership, we will achieve our goals. We will fast track and make sure that the entrepreneurs are financially stable with the support and the growth of small-scale industries and programmes that will be involved.’’

Mr Olawande said that the ministry was partnering with many agencies to ensure that youths’ challenges were addressed.

The minister said that the ministry had inaugurated digital schemes for all in Niger where all categories of youth would be engaged.

He said that President Bola Tinubu had approved a youth house for the first time in the history of the country.

He said, “We will thrive and make sure that we have youth centres in all states. Our major problem now is unemployment; so, to address this issue, we need different initiatives and ideas that youth will come up.”

According to him, for more than 60 years, the government has been far away from young people as they do not have access to governance.

The minister said that Mr Tinubu would ensure that young people had an enabling environment to strive and achieve their utmost goals.

He stated, “Our president has listened to the youth carefully and he is ready to provide enabling environment for businesses to excel in the country.’’

Mr Olawande said that the president approved the student loan scheme to ensure that no young person dropped out of school due to financial issues.

“The president is saying no child in this country will drop out of school because he/she is not able to pay school fees. The scheme is for youths to access interest-free facilities for their educational pursuits in tertiary institutions,” he said.

An academic from Nile University, Abuja, Prof. Ahmed Adamu, in his paper presentation on the theme, said that education was key to everything.

Mr Adamu said that more jobs would be created, adding that it required young people to have creativity, digital and adaptable skills.

According to him, young people should have complex problem-solving skills which will help them adapt to any changes.

He said that without skills, many people would be jobless in years to come.

Mr Adamu said that for one to go far in whatever they are doing, they must be self-disciplined, duly intelligent and have the consistency in learning.

The minister led the youth on a road walk from the ministry to BMO Event Centre.

(NAN)