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FG launches $220m youth employment initiative
The Nigerian government is planning a substantial $220 million investment to generate employment opportunities for the nation’s youth population.
This employment drive will be jointly led by the Nigerian government in collaboration with the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
READ ALSO: FG targets 20,000 jobs yearly in Nigeria jubilee fellows programme
The project is the second phase of the Nigeria Jubilee Fellows Programme (NJFP) 2.0, designed to connect promising Nigerian graduates with practical work experience, professional training, and mentorship.
Vice President Kashim Shettima officially launched the NJFP on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. He stated that the primary objective is to bridge the gap between academic learning and professional earning for thousands of young Nigerians—graduates who possess qualifications but often lack opportunities.
According to the Vice President, this initiative will convert Nigeria’s large young population into “productive economic power,” demonstrating that when the government provides structure and partnership, young Nigerians will meet the challenge.
The VP pointed out that while the NJFP is fundamentally a Nigerian program shaped by national priorities, the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is committed to deepening its ownership by integrating it into the government’s official national planning and budgeting frameworks.
He affirmed the government’s commitment: “This government will do its part by ensuring that our financial commitment to the programme reflects our belief in its transformative potential. But national ownership must also mean national participation,” he said.
Vice President Shettima also urged for closer collaboration between the public and private sectors to address Nigeria’s unemployment crisis.
He outlined the financial goals: “As we launch NJFP 2.0 today, I call on our partners — from the private sector, the development community, and the donor ecosystem — to join us in building the NJFP Basket Fund, a sustainable financing mechanism to secure the programme’s future.
“Our immediate goal is to raise $220 million, not as charity, but as an investment in the nation’s most valuable asset: our young people,” the VP added.
He also appealed to the EU, the UNDP, and other stakeholders to view the program’s flag-off as an opportunity to confirm that “youth employment is not just a policy priority but a shared responsibility.”
Shettima concluded by stressing that inclusivity is vital for the process and that Nigeria’s public institutions, private sector leaders, and philanthropic community must take the lead.
He concluded with an encouraging statement about the youth: “The task before us is both serious and inspiring. The young Nigerians we seek to serve are not asking for handouts — only for a fair system that recognises effort, rewards merit, and provides opportunity.
“They are ready to build if we are ready to back them,” he added.
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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