Nigeria targets 10m globally certified workers by 2030 — Alausa - Vanguard News

The Federal Government has unveiled plans to transform Nigeria’s youthful population into a globally competitive workforce, targeting 10 million globally certified Nigerians and one million export-linked jobs by 2030 under its National Talent Export Programme.

The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, disclosed this at the Hire From Nigeria side event held on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Alausa said the Federal Ministry of Education was repositioning the country’s education and skills system to produce trained, certified and adaptable workers capable of meeting the demands of the global outsourcing and digitally enabled services market.

According to him, Nigeria’s large English-speaking youth population, cultural adaptability and growing digital capabilities provide a strong foundation for the country to compete for jobs and services in the global economy.

“Nigeria’s greatest asset is its people: a young, ambitious, English-speaking and increasingly digitally capable population. Our task in Education is to turn that scale into verified competence and reliable service delivery,” he said.

The minister said the global outsourcing and digitally enabled services economy offered Nigeria opportunities to create jobs, increase export earnings and enable citizens to build international careers without necessarily leaving the country.

He, however, identified the disconnect between training and changing employer demands, inadequate work-based learning opportunities and limited access to internationally recognised certifications as major challenges requiring urgent attention.

Alausa said the government was addressing the challenges through curriculum reforms, stronger accreditation and quality assurance, as well as expanded digital and technical training through federal institutions and credible private training providers.

He stressed that employers must have a permanent role in shaping the skills pipeline, rather than being consulted only when curricula are due for periodic review.

“We need a permanent employer-led feedback loop, not occasional curriculum reviews,” he said.

Under the proposed model, employers would participate from programme design through training, assessment, certification and recruitment to ensure that graduates acquire skills that correspond directly with labour-market demands.

Alausa also disclosed that the Federal Government’s free Technical and Vocational Education and Training, TVET, programme had attracted more than one million applications, with about 160,000 trainees already supported through approximately 1,200 centres nationwide.

The centres include Federal Technical Colleges and accredited private training institutions.

He said the government was also promoting multiple pathways into employment and enterprise, including university education, TVET, apprenticeships and continuous upskilling.

According to him, the objective is to reposition skills acquisition as a direct route to employment, entrepreneurship, income generation and further learning, while changing perceptions about technical and vocational education.

The minister said preparing Nigerian youths for an economy increasingly driven by artificial intelligence and advanced technologies was also at the heart of the education reform agenda.

“We must train young people to work with artificial intelligence, not to compete with it on routine tasks,” Alausa said.

He said future-ready workers would require skills that complement technology, including judgment, creativity, domain knowledge, data literacy, cybersecurity, cloud services, software development, customer success, quality assurance and AI-enabled operations.

Through the Federal Government’s Digital Training Academy, he said partnerships with global learning providers, including Coursera and Pluralsight, were providing 32,000 Nigerians with free access to professional digital and technology training.

The programme covers areas such as product management, cloud computing, cybersecurity, IT automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning, agentic AI, fintech, parallel and quantum computing, and natural language processing.

The minister added that the Student Venture Capital Grant was supporting students in STEMM disciplines to convert innovative ideas into viable businesses, strengthening the link between education, innovation and enterprise.

Alausa challenged international employers, Business Process Outsourcing, BPO, operators, investors and development partners to move beyond expressions of interest and build practical, investable talent pipelines in Nigeria.

He urged employers to clearly define their skills requirements, co-design training programmes, provide work-based learning opportunities, recognise credible Nigerian certifications, recruit from Nigerian talent pools and provide feedback on workforce performance.

BPO operators and investors, he said, should also establish and expand delivery centres beyond the country’s major commercial cities while investing in training infrastructure, connectivity, quality systems and management capacity.

Development partners, he added, could support the initiative through scalable certification programmes, instructor development, inclusion of women and underserved communities, labour-market intelligence and systems for measuring employment outcomes rather than merely counting trainees.

He also called for stronger international institutional partnerships and centres of excellence in Nigerian institutions to deepen global linkages, benchmarking and knowledge transfer.

Alausa said the ministry would, in return, deepen industry participation in curriculum development and certification, expand market-relevant TVET and digital-skills pathways, strengthen accreditation and quality assurance, and improve the link between educational institutions, training providers and employers.

The initiatives form part of the ministry’s role on the supply side of the National Talent Export Programme, under which Nigeria is targeting one million export-linked jobs and 10 million globally certified Nigerians by 2030.

The Federal Ministry of Education is also leading the programme’s Supply Technical Working Group.

Alausa said the reforms were aligned with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly its focus on human capital development, job creation, skills acquisition and inclusive economic growth.

“Under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, our commitment is clear: we will continue to invest in the skills, knowledge and innovation of our young people and build an education system that gives Nigerian talent the capacity and confidence to compete and succeed anywhere in the world,” he said.

He said the ultimate goal was to build an education and skills system capable of connecting Nigerian talent to global opportunities while strengthening the country’s position in the international economy and enabling more young Nigerians to build sustainable careers at home and abroad.

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