The Federal Government has unveiled plans to train 35,000 Nigerians in advanced digital skills as part of its “Hire from Nigeria” campaign, an initiative aimed at enabling young people to work for international companies from within the country.
The Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Olatunji Alausa, disclosed this while responding to questions from journalists at the official launch of the campaign in Abuja.
He said the programme was designed to convert Nigeria’s youthful population into an economic advantage by building a pool of skilled, certified and globally employable workers.
Nigeria has a population of about 220 million people, with more than 70 per cent below the age of 30, Alausa said.
He described the demographic profile as presenting the country with two possible outcomes: a demographic dividend driven by productive employment, or a demographic catastrophe caused by unemployment and underemployment.
According to him, the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is pursuing the first option by making human-capital development a central part of its economic strategy.
“We want young Nigerians to work here, get jobs with companies in Singapore, Hong Kong, London and Germany, but work in Nigeria,” the minister said, describing the initiative as a way to make outsourcing and digitally delivered services a major contributor to the nation’s gross domestic product.
Seven digital fields targeted
Alausa said the Ministry of Education, which represents the supply side of the campaign, had begun curriculum reforms at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels to make education more practical and responsive to labour-market needs.
He said the government’s Digital Technology Academy would train participants in software development methodologies, cybersecurity, IT automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning, natural-language processing, cloud computing and quantum computing.
The training, expected to last between six and eight months, will be supported by certifications from international technology and education providers, including Coursera, AWS, Microsoft and Huawei, among others.
The minister said the government would bear the cost of the relevant certification licences.
The programme is also expected to complement existing initiatives, including the 2 Million Technical Talents programme and technical-job schemes supported by private-sector partners.
The minister’s comments came against the backdrop of global demand for technology workers.
Citing 2025 UNESCO data, he said there were about 2.3 million vacancies worldwide in the targeted technology fields, including approximately 228,000 openings in software development, 117,000 in cybersecurity, 72,000 in artificial intelligence and machine learning, and 70,000 in cloud computing.
He argued that the principal challenge was not necessarily the absence of jobs, but the shortage of suitably trained and certified workers who could compete for them.
“The jobs are there. Once they have been skilled, trained and certified, they can apply for those jobs,” Alausa said.
From theory to practical skills
The minister said the government had also expanded technical and vocational education, with more than 200,000 Nigerians undergoing training in over 1,200 skills-acquisition centres across the country.
He said the training model had been changed from predominantly theoretical instruction to an approach comprising about 80 per cent practical work and 20 per cent theory.
Graduates would undergo skills assessment before receiving National Skills Qualification certification.
Alausa added that 36 federal technical colleges, alongside an adopted state technical college and institutions in the Federal Capital Territory, were providing free technical education.
Students, he said, were supplied with accommodation and other essential items required for their studies.
The ministry is also working with Amazon Web Services to extend digital training to tertiary institutions.
Nearly 50 institutions have reportedly been on boarded onto the AWS Online Academy, giving students access to structured technology courses and industry-aligned learning.
In addition, the Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Business Incubation Certification programme, initially introduced at the University of Lagos, has been expanded to 14 universities.
The programme is intended to equip students with entrepreneurial and commercialisation skills before graduation, thereby encouraging them to become job creators rather than job seekers.
Funding for student entrepreneurs
The minister said the government was supporting young entrepreneurs through student venture-capital grants.
Under the first phase, selected founders received grants of up to ₦15 million, while the second phase is expected to provide between ₦75 million and ₦100 million in equity-free funding to help promising businesses move from innovation to commercialisation.
He said the funding was designed to help young Nigerians turn viable ideas, products and platforms into businesses capable of contributing to the economy and creating employment.
Alausa further cited accreditation reforms, quality-assurance measures and the development of centres of excellence across universities, polytechnics and colleges of education as part of the effort to ensure that Nigerian qualifications and skills meet international standards.
Reversing brain drain
The minister said the broader objective was to shift Nigeria from a pattern of brain drain to one of brain gain by making it possible for professionals to earn from international markets without leaving the country.
He also pointed to increased admissions in key professional fields. According to him, annual admissions into nursing programmes had risen from about 20,000 to more than 130,000.
While medical-school admissions had increased from approximately 5,000 to nearly 12,000. He said admissions in pharmacy and dentistry had also expanded significantly.
The government, he added, was upgrading workshops and laboratories in universities and other higher institutions so that engineering students could receive hands-on training with modern equipment and become employable anywhere in the world.
Government targets one million export-linked jobs
The “Hire from Nigeria” campaign is being implemented through cooperation among the Ministries of Education; Industry, Trade and Investment; Information and National Orientation; private-sector organisations; training institutions; and international technology partners.
The federal government has set an ambition of creating one million export- linked jobs over five years, with the campaign serving as a platform for connecting Nigerian talent to employers and clients abroad.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said the govt would use its communication platforms to promote Nigerian professionals and digitally delivered services internationally.
He said the campaign would help present Nigeria as a credible source of talent, creativity and professional expertise.
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, said the campaign was being driven by the need to connect Nigeria’s existing talent and services capacity to international demand.
She said the government was working to build talent pipelines, engage global employers and develop a national outsourcing policy expected to be launched in November 2026.
Oduwole said the govt’s approach had shifted from a broad talent-export conversation to a demand-led services -export strategy focused on converting Nigerian capacity into contracts, foreign-exchange earnings and jobs.
For Alausa, the success of the campaign will ultimately depend on whether training produces workers who are easy for international employers to discover, trust and hire.
He said the government’s goal was to ensure that Nigerians could remain in the country, secure decent and well-paid jobs, serve clients across the world and contribute to national development from home.
The campaign’s global launch is expected to take place during the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
