Post Covid: German Ambassador Pledges Support for Women, Youths in ICT, Others

By Kuni Tyessi

Moving forward in the post lockdown as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic, German ambassador to Nigeria, Ms. Birgitt Ory has pledged total support and commitment to Nigerian women and youths in information and communication technology, stressing that skills in the digital space are required to take the nation forward.

She said other areas that will be looked into, with collaboration from the Nigerian government include, fostering of creation of employment in a sustainable economy that will leave no one behind, promotion of decent jobs and investing in vocational training among others.

The ambassador who stated this in Abuja during a two-day national conference on employment promotion with the theme “Addressing the challenges of employment and reintegration at the national and sub national levels in the post Covid 19 era: impact and policy response”, added that Nigeria will need to create nine million jobs annually for the next ten years in order to close the wide margin of unemployment which has been aggravated by the pandemic.

Represented by the head of development corporation, Susan Shod, the ambassador said supporting an enabling environment for a thriving private sector as well as the returning of Nigerian migrants, climate change and the importance of energy were all part of the agreement.

“Germany will continue to partner with Nigeria and get people decent jobs. Young men and women will be supported in the area of ICT and supporting digitalisation skills in the digital space are requirements needed to take us further.

“There has to be renewed efforts to reduce forced and child labour. We do need children in school so that they can contribute to the society.

“How do we begin to reduce informal sector to transition to the formal and be protected by the law? There’s need to bring back hope in young people as there are limited opportunities” she said.