JCI Honours Youths and Sports Development Minister Sunday Dare With Special Recognition Award

In appreciation of his contribution to the development of Youth and Sports in Nigeria, the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare was on Saturday night, August 21, bestowed with a special recognition award by the Junior Chamber International (JCI) Northern Conference in Abuja.

The conference with the theme "Securing and Transforming Our Collective Future" was convened to gather young Nigerians to proffer solutions to security challenges facing the nation.

The JCI lauded the Minister for the innovative initiatives of his Ministry which placed premium on empowerment of the youth, stating initiatives like the National Youth Investment Programme (NYIF), Digital Skill Entrepreneurship Employability Leadership (DEEL) amongst others are commendable, hence the award.

The Honourable Minister in his acceptance speech thanked the group for the award, emphasising that the Annual Conference provides a platform for Nigerian youths especially the members of JCI and their stakeholders to share experiences and exchange ideas on contemporary security issues affecting various sectors in the country.

The minister enthused:

"I believe that this conference will generate new ideas, innovations and strategies to address the identified challenges."

Mr Dare further stated that Security is multi dimensional:

"The youth need job security. Educational security through quality education. And of course the security against robbers, bandits, kidnappers and terrorists.

"We have seen a massive improvement in the curtainment of the activities of boko haram, banditry and other terror activities under President Buhari."

"Government remains committed to providing adequate security. The greatest security the youth need is employment through job security."

He intimated the conference that the partnership of the Ministry with IBM, Google and Microsoft has led to the training of over 100,000 youths for Digital skills under the DEEL programme, restating the commitment of the Buhari administration to do more to provide opportunities for advancement of youth, urging the JCI to take advantage of various initiatives of the Youth and Sports development Ministry to increase potentials for employability and leadership.

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