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NIGERIA’s Ambassador-Designate to China, Amb. Abdulrahman Dambazau, has emphasised the need to promote young talent development, innovation and technology-driven policies to harness the country’s growing youth population.
Dambazau emphasised this during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
The ambassador-designate underscored the need for Nigeria to deliberately develop policies and programmes aimed at empowering young people to direct their energies towards productive ventures.
According to him, talent development remains one of the country’s major challenges in spite of the enormous potential among the youth population.
He said “the young people today have gone into different types of communities, but the challenge is what we call talent development.
“So, what we are doing is working together to build communities that can deploy our youths positively and reduce hostility.”
Dambazau said that China’s development model “offers useful lessons for Nigeria, particularly in the area of youth participation in industrial growth and technological advancement.”
He noted that in many Chinese companies, young people played active roles in driving innovation and enterprise development.
“When you go to the companies in China, you see young people taking ownership of such companies.
“But here in Nigeria, you do not find many young people doing so,” he said.
The ambassador-designate, however, stressed that Nigeria needs to develop solutions suited to its realities rather than depend entirely on external models.
According to him, government policies will play a critical role in determining how technology, equipment, and innovation can support national development goals.
“But the concept itself is ours. We have a young population here.
“About 70 per cent of our population accounts for youths,” he said.
Dambazau also highlighted agriculture, information technology, and entrepreneurship as key sectors where Nigerian youths could be productively engaged.
He said Nigeria possesses vast agricultural land and a rapidly growing technology ecosystem capable of creating employment opportunities for millions of young people.
“We have these tech startups, and quite a lot of young people are making progress and building businesses.
“I think Nigeria has one of the fastest-growing startup ecosystems in Africa,” he said.
The ambassador-designate stressed the need to reform the education system to better align with the ntion’s industrial and technological needs.
Citing China’s gradual industrialisation strategy, Danbazau said development required patience, consistency, and careful planning.
The former chief of army staff added that while China’s experience could provide lessons, Nigeria would ultimately have to design and implement policies suited to its national priorities.
He said the Federal Government already has several youth-focused programmes and that deeper reorientation and implementation were the ingredients needed for meaningful impact. (NAN)
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Tags: Talent