Pic.1. L-R Representative, of Secretary to Federation Mr Dr Roy Ugo,
Chief Executive Officer, NEPAD Princess Gloria Akobundu and Director
of Programme implementation and Coordinator NEPAD Agency, South
Africa ,Mee Estherine Frebong,during the New Partnership for Africa
Development Stakeholder Workshop on Skill Initiative for Africa in
Abuja
In its effort to ensure all round development of Africa, the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) held a two-day skill imparting programme in Abuja from February 28, to March 1, 2017. The programme was titled “Stakeholders Workshop on Skills Initiative for Africa.”
Princess Gloria Akubundo, National Coordinator/CEO, NEPAD Nigeria said the meeting afforded all stakeholders involved in capacity building the opportunity to identify challenges of skills development, and design practical and enduring solutions for effective engagement of the target groups which are mostly women and youths.
Akubundo who identified the major causes of the alarming rate of unemployment in Nigeria to include: financial recession, skills mismatch, lack of access to capital, and the digital divide, said the workshop focused on “creating windows of opportunities that are capable of absorbing the skills and providing access to requisite tools and finance to support entrepreneurial ventures.”
Chairman, House Committee on Integration and Co-Operation in
Africa,Dr Kingsley Ebenye, Representative, of Secretary to Federation
Mr Dr Roy Ugo and Chief Executive Officer, NEPAD Princess Gloria
Akobundu during the New Partnership for Africa Development Stakeholder
Workshop on Skill Initiative for Africa in Abuja
She used the opportunity to call on all youths and women to take advantage of the NEPAD empowerment platform by coming forward to be assisted in skill development and guidance towards self-employment.
Engr. Babachir David Lawal, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), represented by Hon. Roy Ugo, the Permanent Secretary in the office of SGF, applauded the programme on behalf of the federal government. To him, the initiative was “quite apt and timely as it is aimed at charting a new course in line with the present administration’s agenda”.
Mrs Lisinge-Fotabong, from the NEPAD Agency in South Africa, lauded the critical role Nigeria has been playing as one of the founding fathers of the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency, as well as its support for the implantation of NEPAD programmes.
By Pita Ochai