On Monday, December 20 2021, it was announced that the Federal Government of Nigeria had launched a new skill acquisition programme known as N-knowledge, a component of the Npower scheme. With the announcement of the launch, it was stated that about 3,000 Nigerian youths from the North Central geopolitical zone of the country were trained under the programme.
The N-knowledge programme has its focus on the digital job market, preparing them for the global and national digital scene, in a bid to reduce unemployment among youths in the country. Plans for N-knowledge include the empowerment of about 20,000 young Nigerians in the digital sector, to aid the creation of jobs.
In the first part of the N-knowledge programme, 3,000 Nigerian youths from the North Central region were trained, and were given some items after the training which would aid their startups, including laptops.
This new phase has seen another 1,500 Nigerian youths trained, handed certificates and subsequently equipped. These 1,500 beneficiaries were from the North East part of the country. This takes the total of Nigerian youths who have benefited from the programme to 4,500.
These new beneficiaries have been trained for three months in three different learning clusters, which include creative art (animation), computer hardware installation and repairs (specifically with Android phones), and finally scriptwriting.
This training took place at the Abubakar Tabari Ali Polytechnic (ATAP) in Bauchi for 90 days, after which the beneficiaries were handed starter packs based on their selected specialisations, as well as a small amount to help get them running.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sa’adiya Umar Farouk spoke to the beneficiaries at the ATAP, imploring them to put what they have learnt from the programme to good use. The Minister was represented by a Deputy Director from the Ministry, Gidado Abubakar and also said that the Federal Government is fully committed to empowering unemployed and vulnerable Nigerian youths in order to bring them out of poverty.
One of the consultants of the programme who handled the hardware cluster, Bashir Umar Tofa stated that a total of 1,360 people signed up for the training. However, only 771 were fully certified and trained, and then given starter packs to start working. With the training acquired, these youths will be able to take on installation and repairs of computer system hardware. Tofa encouraged them to take the training seriously and engage other unemployed youths in their specialised areas in order to help bridge the unemployment gap.
