Tinubu: Empowering Youth, Deep Personal Priority of My Govt

* Unveils new youth-empowerment drive

* FG announces start-up grants, digital work platform

* Nigeria’s youth are our demographic advantage, says Edun

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

President Bola Tinubu has stressed that empowering Nigeria’s youth remains a “deeply personal” priority of his two and a half year-old government.

This is just as the Federal Government rolled out a new suite of digital-skills and enterprise-support programmes aimed at preparing young Nigerians for global competitiveness.

Speaking at the launch of the second edition of the Nigeria Youth Academy (NiYA) Startup Grants and the unveiling of the NiYA Gig digital-work platform in Abuja, the president, represented by his Chief of Staff, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, said youth empowerment is central to the nation’s future and the engine of his Renewed Hope Agenda.

According to him, “From the earliest days of this administration, I made a firm decision that Nigeria’s youth will not stand on the margins of our national development. This commitment is not political; it is personal.”

The president highlighted ongoing reforms to expand opportunities for youth-led enterprises, including easing tax compliance for small businesses, incentivising the digital and creative economy, and building a pipeline of young global service providers through the NiYA Academy, NiYA Startup, NiYA Jobs and the newly launched NiYA Gigs.

Tinubu commended the Ministry of Youth Development for widening the programme’s reach after the debut edition drew more than 14,000 applications nationwide.

Earlier, the Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, said the administration is constructing a comprehensive youth-empowerment ecosystem covering skills acquisition, enterprise creation and income generation.

He announced grants of N1 million each for 200 youth-led startups and N500,000 each for 100 beneficiaries in the informal sector, describing the funds as “not loans, but fuel for your journey”.

Olawande also launched NiYA Gig, a national digital-work platform intended to link young Nigerians to paid opportunities locally and globally, while highlighting the success of initiatives such as the Nigerian Youth Help Desk and a WhatsApp AI Chatbot that has already engaged more than one million young people.

On his part, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, said the Federal Government is preparing Nigeria’s youthful population for global competition by investing in digital infrastructure, skills training and innovation.

“Nigeria’s youth are our demographic advantage. With proper preparation, young Africans will make up 25 per cent of the world’s workforce by 2050,” he said, noting that expanded broadband access and automation will enable young Nigerians to export digital services without leaving the country.

Also speaking, the Minister of State for Finance, Doris Uzoka-Anite Udoka, said ongoing financial-sector reforms would ease access to credit, expand concessional loans, strengthen tax incentives and scale digital infrastructure for youth-led MSMEs.

“These initiatives are deliberately designed to stimulate entrepreneurship and deepen the creativity that defines the Nigerian spirit,” she said.

In a goodwill message, Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, described Nigeria’s digitally fluent young population as a major national asset.

“Our human capital, our talent is our new oil,” he said, noting that more than 70 per cent of the country’s 230 million citizens are under 18.

Also, the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala Usman, said achieving President Tinubu’s ambition of a $1 trillion economy depends on unlocking the full potential of Nigeria’s youth, adding that reforms to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) will convert the scheme into a launchpad for future-oriented careers.