News

Federal Govt kicks off training for two million IT jobs in June

Published

1 year ago

March 14, 2025

Charles Flames

641 Views

The Federal Government is set to offer six months of free training to youths to fill two million job vacancies.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has also approved N120 billion to revive technical education.

Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, spoke during the third Ministerial Press Briefing, organised by Minister of Information and National Orientation Mohammed Idris in Abuja.

Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, also gave an account of his stewardship.

Alausa said: “We have almost N120 billion and the President has approved it for us to move this agenda forward.

“This programme will be launched probably in the month of May.

“Today, based on UNESCO data, there are 650,000 vacancies in software development methodologies, about 280,000 vacancies in cyber security, and about 160,000 vacancies in IT automation.“

Another 150,000 vacancies in AI and machine learning, about 120,000 vacancies in cloud computing, and about 60,000 vacancies worldwide in national language processing.

“Add that together, we have almost two million job vacancies out there.

“So, what we’re doing with Digital Training Academy is working with trainers that will offer six- months of training to young engineers.

“We, as a government, will pay for their internet services, pay for their certification- Cisco certification, End of Career certification, and Google certification.”

Alausa said the strategy would give Nigerians new digital skills needed to stand out in the world.

He added that the training would be launched on or before June.

The minister said the Federal Ministry of Education was putting measures to encourage Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) to meet the areas of needs.

He said this would be done through the Digital Training Academy (DTA) to give students skills in service industries.

Alausa reiterated the commitment of the government to return 10 million out-of-school children to the classrooms.

He said the ministry was working on a new strategy to increase access, improve quality and enhance education systems for foundational learning.

Alausa said between now and 2027, the government will reconstruct 195,000 classrooms across the nation.

“With regards to infrastructure, between now and 2027, we will need to raise 195,000 classrooms across the nation.

“We will install 28,000 toilets, and 22,900 boreholes across other schools in the country.

“We will construct about 7,000 new classrooms and provide learning and teaching materials by organising 103 million textbooks,” he said.

Alausa hinged the current proliferation of universities on the increasing pressure being mounted by lawmakers.

He said almost 200 bills were pending in the National Assembly for the creation of universities.

Alausa explained that renewing the capacities of existing institutions was more important than establishing new ones.

According to him, there is no need to put pressure on the president to establish new universities.

“We must focus on our capacities. We need to stop this from happening. There’s so much pressure on the president.

“We have to at least be sensitive to it as well. They (lawmakers) are passing a lot of bills.

“Today, there are almost 200 bills in the National Assembly. We can’t continue this.

“Even though we have a lot of them, the capacity for a university to admit is not there.

“What we need to do now is to rebuild the capacities so that we can offer more viable courses to our citizens,” he said.

The minister added that the enrollment rate was not commensurate with the recent number of universities.

“If you look at the entire enrollment together, the one per cent of private universities account for just 7.5 per cent of total undergraduate enrollment.

“The total number of undergraduate enrollment today is just about 875,000, which is at least fairly low.

“We have universities with less than 1,000 undergraduate students, and there’s this intense demand for more universities to be opened.

“We have to stop that,” he said.

He added that several key proposals had been put forward to address education sector challenges.

He added that the Tinubu Administration has committed N40 billion to the abandoned National Library of Nigeria project.

The minister said work on the library project would soon commence, adding that this would support academic and research needs.

Others who attended the briefing include Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to the President, Mr. Bayo Onanuga; Special Adviser on Public Communication and Orientation, Mr. Sunday Dare, and Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, Publicity and Special Duties, Mr. Tunde Rahaman.

Heads of agencies in the Ministry of Information and National Orientation – News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Voice of Nigeria (VON), National Orientation Agency (NOA) and Federal Radio Cooperation of Nigeria (FRCN) – were also there.

News

Police confirm Kogi APC Chairman’s Murder by Bandits

Yunusa’s vehicle was reportedly intercepted by the suspected bandits during a kidnapping operation along the Itobe–Ochadamu Expressway, around Ojuwo Olijo in Ofu Local Government Area of the state, on Thursday, August 27, 2026.

Published

1 day ago

August 28, 2026

OCHEFA

12 Views

•Ishaq Yunusa

Kogi State Police Command on Friday confirmed the murder of the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State, Ishaq Yunusa.

Yunusa was killed in an attack by suspected bandits.

His death has thrown family members, friends and APC supporters into mourning, with calls for the immediate arrest and prosecution of those responsible.

The Public Relations Officer, ASP Saliu Oyiza Afusat, confirmed the incident in a statement issued on Friday.

She said the attack occurred at about 5 p.m. on Thursday when armed assailants emerged from the surrounding bush and opened sporadic fire on motorists.

According to the police, security agencies are intensifying operations in the area, while personnel are combing the surrounding forests in a bid to rescue any abducted victims and track down those responsible for the attack.

The command says efforts are ongoing to restore security along the affected route.

News

President Tinubu Orders Comprehensive Forensic Audits of MDAs, IPPIS

The exercise will establish the nature and extent of weaknesses in Government’s control system, and determine how such weaknesses have been exploited.

Published

1 day ago

August 28, 2026

OCHEFA

12 Views

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed the Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, to oversee and coordinate a comprehensive forensic audit of Federal Government systems.

The audit will include a review of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), Federal Government agencies, and their administration and internal controls.

Bayo Onanuga,Special Adviser to the President(Information & Strategy), in a press release on Friday, said that President Tinubu’s directive follows the Federal Executive Council’s resolution on August 19, 2026, in response to findings by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on “fake agencies”, ghost workers, and other control failures.

The exercise will establish the nature and extent of weaknesses in Government’s control system, and determine how such weaknesses have been exploited.

The review will comprise two interconnected components. The first will focus on a forensic audit of Government systems, particularly IPPIS and related payroll, personnel, pension and financial-management platforms.

It will examine reported cases of ghost workers and payroll fraud, reconcile the figures identified by the ICPC, trace how fictitious or ineligible persons were enrolled, and review access, identity, biometric and bank-account controls.

The exercise will also examine the interfaces between IPPIS and other government platforms, including GIFMIS, Remita, the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and Sub-TSA, to determine whether fraud resulted from system defects, process failures, inadequate segregation of duties or deliberate circumvention.

The second component of the audit will cover all Federal Government agencies, departments, commissions, councils, parastatals and other government bodies.

It will establish a definitive inventory of such bodies and verify their legal basis, while examining how entities obtain official recognition, budgetary consideration, correspondence privileges, office facilities and access to government systems.

The exercise will assess governance, procurement, internal-audit, and oversight controls across Government to close systemic weaknesses that could allow irregular entities or persons to access public resources.

President Tinubu directed that the exercise be conducted with the highest standards of independence, professionalism and forensic integrity.

The audit team will have access to relevant government systems and records. It will collaborate with the ICPC to ensure that the review complements all ongoing investigations, prosecutions and recoveries.

President Tinubu expects the exercise to go beyond identifying individual cases of fraud or administrative failure by strengthening the architecture of Government, closing systemic loopholes, improving data verification and reconciliation, reinforcing accountability, and ensuring that only duly constituted entities and eligible personnel have access to Government resources.

The exercise underscores the President’s commitment to strengthening transparency, accountability, fiscal governance and institutional integrity across the Federal Government.