Germany to “train 50,000 Nigerian youths in construction”

German diplomats have said their government will train 50,000 Nigerian youths in construction and agriculture to meet labour demands.

“We need a skilled workforce in special areas but it’s often difficult to find so most large companies look overseas for manpower”– Adesoji Adesugba, vice president of the Abuja chamber of commerce and industry Christopher Wenzel, Head of Cooperation at the German Embassy in Abuja, told a meeting convened by the German development agency, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit that the programme would last four years and would provide employment for graduates of the scheme.

“50,000 youth in Nigeria will be trained by the German government within the next four years and we expect all of them to be employed afterwards. What we are doing is to bring together the demand for labour in this country with the supply of skilled workforce,” he said. Development agency country director, Thomas Kirsch, said the 50,000 beneficiaries will be selected with help from state governments and the private sector.

“We will focus on the priority areas of the present government which are construction and agriculture sectors. We are working with several state governments and organised private sectors to identify young men and women who can be trained,” he is reported to have said. Vice president of the Abuja chamber of commerce and industry, Adesoji Adesugba, lamented the increasing number of unemployed youths in the country

“We have identified that especially for Nigeria that population growth is 2.6% every year, implying that we have about 5 million new Nigerians being born.  You can imagine the number of youths that are out there and need to be engaged,” he said.

“While we have the universities and institutions training people in different skills, we also need to know exactly what the sectors need. “That’s why the city Chamber of Commerce has made it a priority to have capacity development units.”