TARGETING THE MARGINALIZED
EQUITABLE AND INCLUSIVE EMPLOYMENT FOR YOUTH
As youth unemployment in the Niger Delta remains challenging, we extended our youth employment project to Delta State in 2021 to further enhance youth employability and entrepreneurship capacity in the State. This followed the success of the Niger Delta Youth Employment Pathways (NDYEP), which ran in Abia, Akwa-Ibom, and Rivers States from 2018 to 2020 that empowered thousands of young people in the region with market-relevant technical skills, vocational skills, and soft skills to secure waged employment or start an enterprise. Based on a Delta State labor market study, we selected the agriculture, business services, building construction, and ICT (information and communications technology) sectors to focus training around. The 17 vocational skills training in these sectors included aquaculture farming; aluminum proļ¬ling; carpentry & woodwork; computer hardware repair; digital marketing; fashion design & tailoring; footwear & bag making; painting & electrical installation; photography; poultry farming; snail farming; solar panel installation; and tiling & plumbing. Nine implementing partners received NGN 71 million/USD 173,170 in grant funding and commenced this training for 586 youth in Delta state during the year āenabling community members to guide and support one another. Entrepreneurial trainees will receive robust post-training support, such as business advisory services, market linkages, and access to funding to help them ļ¬nd their footing quickly in the business world.
2021 ANNUAL REPORT
