• Push Africa plans to train 2 million youth in job-ready sectors
  
• Over 100 healthcare assistants graduated in partnership with AUST in Abuja
  
• Training aims to address skills gap amid rising unemployment and poverty

Nigerian skills development organisation Push Africa has announced a plan to train 2 million young Nigerians and Africans in health, technology, agriculture and media. The announcement was made on Saturday by the organisation’s founder, Doris Egberamen, at the inauguration of the 2024-2025 cohort of Push Africa’s Healthcare Assistant Training Programme in Abuja, The Guardian reported.

The event marked the graduation of more than 100 healthcare assistants trained in partnership with the African University of Science and Technology (AUST).

Egberamen said Push Africa’s programmes are designed to give young people a clear pathway into employment and to help tackle unemployment and poverty in Nigeria and across sub-Saharan Africa. She said the organisation develops training aligned with skills that employers are actively seeking.

Nigeria and several other African countries face a mismatch between large numbers of university graduates and a shortage of qualified technicians and skilled trades workers. According to AUST President Azikiwe Peter Onwualu, the university achieves a 100 percent employment rate for its postgraduate students, which highlights the region’s shortage of technical talent. Push Africa’s training helps address this gap by equipping young people with job-ready skills.

In 2024, the World Bank reported that about 464 million people in sub-Saharan Africa were still living in extreme poverty, nearly one in three Africans. The institution also projects that the region will see hundreds of millions of new entrants to the labour market in the coming decades. It estimates that the working-age population could rise by 740 million by 2050 while local economies currently create only about 3 million formal jobs per year.

Félicien Houindo Lokossou