Young Africa International, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, has launched the Youth Employability Booster (YEB) project in Nigeria, an ambitious initiative targeting the empowerment of 18,300 young Nigerians with skills for life and work.
The project is Young Africa’s first in West Africa and is set to run until July 2028 to combat youth unemployment through scalable and sustainable vocational training programmes, targeting underserved communities across the country.
Speaking at the event, CEO and Co-Founder of Young Africa International, Dorien Beurskens, said the initiative marked a new chapter in the organisation’s journey, which began in Southern Africa over 27 years ago.
‘We believe in the power of Nigerian youth. Their energy is electric. They only need a channel to contribute to their communities,’ she said.
‘Today marks the official start of the Youth Employability Booster in Nigeria, but the real beginning happened quietly some weeks ago, when training of young people actually began.’
Beurskens noted that the project is more than a typical skills acquisition programme, but one that integrates technical training with life skills, entrepreneurship, psychosocial support, digital literacy, and transition-to-work support the YEB project will deploy mobile TVET units in underserved areas, expand Young Africa’s UNESCO-endorsed Franchise Business Model (FBM), and provide targeted business support for 5,000 female nano and micro entrepreneurs.
The project coordinator and Grants Manager for Young Africa Nigeria, Wellington Muchechetere, said the initiative will be implemented in collaboration with local partners, including Don Bosco, across four states, Abuja, Lagos, Ondo and Onitsha.
He added that the franchise model will ensure that partner vocational centres are financially self-sustaining, reducing their dependency on donor funding. ‘We want to help women not just get training, but also access to loans and real business growth,’ he said.
Dr. Obinna Ebirim, Senior Technical Advisor(STA), Youth Health and Policy Research, who represented the Minister of Youth, Ayodele Olawande said the ministry identifies strongly with the goals of the programme and will offer all necessary support.
‘The good thing about this initiative is that it is inclusive. Ten percent of participants will be persons with disabilities, and 75 percent are expected to be women,’ he said.
‘This aligns closely with our own programmes like the Nigerian Youth Academy (NIA), where youths are trained in multiple skills, including digital literacy.’
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