The Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development in partnership with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and the International Labour Organization is creating a nationwide campaign to understand the aspirations of young Nigerians for decent work. The campaign which is being managed by the Nigeria Youth SDGs Network, a coalition of youth-led civil society organizations will help develop a roadmap towards designing policy and programs that will ensure that young Nigerians are adequately prepared to get and create jobs.
The campaign is part of the implementation of the Nigerian Youth Employment Action Plan (NIYEAP), a 3-year detailed plan to address the youth employment challenge in Nigeria in a comprehensive and coordinated manner. The NIYEAP has been developed to complement and operate in the context of existing policies, frameworks, and strategies such as the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan; the National Youth Policy, the National Employment Policy, the United Nations Development Partnership Framework and the Call for Action.
The journey to the NIYEAP 3-year-plan started In 2016 when the United Nations launched the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth, a multi-stakeholder partnership to advance the implementation of youth employment-related targets of the 2030 Agenda. The Nigerian Youth Employment Action Plan (NIYEAP) serves as a commitment of the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth.
With a focus on digital skills, quality apprenticeships, green jobs and the rural economy, and youth entrepreneurship, the NIYEAP is addressing four priority areas of intervention: Employability; Entrepreneurship; Employment; and Equality and rights, popularly called the 4Es to decent work.
The Action Plan is based on fundamental frameworks to address youth employment. According to the Action Plan, “addressing youth employment means finding solutions with and for young people who are seeking a decent and productive job requires; the supply, i.e education, skills development, and training, and the demand, i.e. job creation and an enabling environment for entrepreneurship”.
To begin, The Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), and the International Labour Organization are capturing the views of the Nigerian youth on employment prospects to inform these policy directions and ensure the right approaches are pursued to implement the NIYEAP. Currently, the survey has been filled by over one hundred and fifty thousand young Nigerians via the UNICEF UReport Platform and the online survey with responses from the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Have you filled the survey? Please visit
