Ministry of Sports Partners Halogen To Create Employment For 40,000 Youths

Ministry of Sports Partners Halogen To Create Employment For 40,000 Youths

By Our Reporter

About 40,000 Nigerian youths are set to benefit from Cyber Security Digital Skills across the country using the National Youth Development Centers.

This was made known in a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Honourable Minister of Youths and Sports Development Sunday Dare in collaboration with Halogen Group on Thursday in Abuja.

The Minister who was represented by the Permanent Secretary said the Ministry shall successfully implement this programme which will in turn make an impact in curbing the rate of youth unemployment in our Nation.

According to him, “this training programme is very significant and timely because we have a growing population of youth ready to offer a wide pool of talents in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) that can be trained to utilize, develop and drive technological advancements for the betterment of our great nation. The programme is coming at a time in our national life where government must provide the impetus towards empowering the Nigerian youth for self-reliance.”

“According to the World Economic Forum, Cybersecurity along with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Analytics now offers great career opportunities to professionals. More stringent regulation will see an increased demand for cybersecurity professionals in Nigeria. There is a need to leverage this skills demand to curb the unemployment rate in Nigeria while promoting national cybersecurity this need has birthed why we are gathered here today.

He stressed that Nigeria’s National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy has identified Cybersecurity as a crucial pillar in diversifying the country’s economy. The Management of Halogen Security here present will agree with me that year 2021 was exciting in the cybersecurity space both locally and internationally. Cyber breaches and attacks were experienced in the economy’s public, private sectors. A significant trend was that no organisation appeared immune to cyber-attacks. Even institutions that had made significant investments in cybersecurity experienced high-profile attacks.

It was noted in the Nigeria Cyber Outlook 2021 that there would be a spotlight on Nigeria’s cyberspace, and attackers would have more tools, skills, and ground to play. Overall spending on technology has been earmarked to increase by more than 50 percent between 2015 and 2030. About half would be on information technology services. The number of people employed in these occupations will be significant and they will benefit from promise of their occupations being high wage occupations. By 2030, it is estimated that this trend could create 20 million to 50 million jobs globally.

He also said that the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development after considerable research has aimed to consistently provide various youth Empowerment programmes, it is in the same spirit that Mr. President and myself in 2020 launched the DEEL Initiative which stands for: Digital Skills Acquisition: with the goal of training up to 200,000 youth in Digital Skills across the country using the National Youth Development Centers; Entrepreneurship Empowerment: A partnership with DBN which has already began with the Nigerian Youth Investment Fund, where 1.5 Million Nigerian Youth are benefiting from various loan amounts Employability: This involves programmes such as the ongoing Work Experience programme and Leadership Training through our CLTC agency.

In his words:

“Cyber Security Training, Competition, Certification and Internship for Nigerian Youth is a programme of the Ministry in collaboration with Halogen group which has carefully been developed to benefit as many young persons as possible. The training is to engage the youth on Cyber Security awareness to mitigate against Cyber-attacks and also offer a range of certification programmes in Cyber Security that may offer permanent job placements both locally and internationally for participants.”

“The programme will entail a FREE general Cyber Security Training as a requisite for participants to be eligible for the Competition. There will be Certification and Internship/job placement for successful participants. The Nigerian youth are expected to apply, get trained and compete for the first, second and third prize of N1 million, N650,000 and N350,000 respectively.”

“The programme is aimed at Creating an enabling platform for skills acquisition, youth empowerment and local content development in the area of information technology and Cyber Security towards the national and economic development of the nation.”

“The mode of the training will be online where up to 40,000 youth will be trained, the competition will be open to all participants and the best will be picked for the Certification.