Oluwabukola Odunwole
As regards Youth Empowerment, Sterling One Foundation has partnered with the United Nations Development Programme to host financial institutions for a discourse session on the Nigeria Jubilee Fellows Programme.
This programme is to empower youths and also to focus on finding the most qualified talents through a transparent process and matching them with host organisations where they can be most impactful.
This was made known through a statement stating that the event which had over 15 different organisations in attendance focused on ways each of the participating organisations could be a part of the youth empowerment partnership initiative between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the United Nations Development Programme.
The Federal Government, it added, recently launched the Nigeria Jubilee Fellowship Programme which aimed to place 20,000 young Nigerian graduates annually into paid one-year opportunities within private and public sector organisations across the country.
According to the statement, the NJFP was launched on August 31, 2022 through a tripartite partnership between the UNDP, the Federal Government of Nigeria, and the European Union.
It stressed on the critical need for diverse support and resource mobilisation, beyond traditional public finance and international aid to achieve Sustainable Development Goals and address one of the country’s biggest challenges, youth unemployment. The project partners designed the programme to be a career launchpad for young Nigerians to hone their skills.
The Chief Executive Officer, Sterling One Foundation, Mrs Olapeju Ibekwe, said, “It was important to convene the meeting as the initiative being introduced is a win-win opportunity for everyone and a chance to create a lasting impact.”
On his part, the UNDP’s Senior Advisor, Dr. William Tsuma, highlighted the key benefits of the programme to each of the organisations and the different efforts that have been made to ensure it is a rewarding venture.
“The graduates we have selected for the programme were tested and picked from a very large pool, and have undergone additional training with our partners, so they hold lots of promise,” he said.
Reacting to his presentation, most of the financial institutions represented showed willingness to partner as host organisations, posing various questions to help them understand how the diverse pool of fellows was selected and what skills they could expect them to have upon hiring them.
The statement said some of them also described the opportunity to host organisations as being a part of a national platform that could help to curb the menace of unemployment within society.
It explained that as part of the programme, fellows would receive on-the-job training from their host organisations to acquire key technical competencies while receiving a monthly stipend to be paid by the implementing partners for 12 months.
