The Federal Government has opened its National Youth Confab (NYC) with a pledge to turn a sprawling youth-policy exercise into measurable action, as officials sought to position young Nigerians as economic contributors rather than passive recipients of state programmes.
Speaking at the event in Abuja, Minister of Youth Development Ayodele Olawande disclosed that President Bola Tinubu’s administration has expanded opportunities in education, skills training, entrepreneurship, technology and employment.
He described the initiative as an effort to build pathways for young people to gain skills, start businesses, find jobs and participate more fully in national development.
Olawande told delegates that the confab’s value would be judged not by speeches but by what follows the gathering.
“The true measure of the success of this gathering will be what happens after we leave this venue,” he said, calling for stronger programs, better coordination, wider access to opportunity and greater accountability.
He urged participants to produce realistic recommendations, identify the institutions responsible for implementation and propose measurable actions.
The Minister also called on young Nigerians to embrace responsibility, ethical conduct, tolerance and national unity.
The government has said it wants to avoid the fate of earlier national conferences whose recommendations were shelved.
The government has outlined mechanisms including a multi-stakeholder task force, an impact index and a youth-led monitoring framework to track implementation, the Minister added.
Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency, (NITDA) Kashifu Abdullahi said artificial intelligence and other technologies would be used to capture, analyze and categorize participants’ contributions into policy themes.
He said the approach is intended to give policymakers a structured record of youth priorities rather than relying solely on conference communiqués.
Brig. Gen. Olakunle Nafiu, Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), in his remarks described Nigeria’s large youth population as both a responsibility and an opportunity.
He urged young people to use creativity and innovation to drive economic and social transformation.
The confab, themed “Next Gen Nigeria: Crafting Solutions, Owning the Future,” combines virtual consultations with an in-person Abuja conference.
It draws delegates from all 360 federal constituencies and the diaspora, with discussions spanning governance, jobs and entrepreneurship, education, technology, climate, security and social cohesion.
For the Tinubu administration, the challenge now is to convert the conference’s policy language into visible results, especially on unemployment, access to finance, education, digital inclusion and social protection, issues Olawande described as interconnected and in need of coordinated action.
