By Busola Aro

The European Union (EU) says it will continue to support Nigeria’s efforts to build a skilled workforce capable of attracting investment and meeting labour market demands.

Massimo De Luca, head of cooperation at the EU delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, spoke on Tuesday at the national skills and industry alignment roundtable Q2 series in Abuja.

“We have a shortage of skilled labour when it comes to big investment projects,” De Luca said.

“On the other hand, we have a lot of untapped talent that is not adequately recognised. Those are realities that investors take into account.”

He commended the office of the vice-president for leading reforms aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s skills development ecosystem.

Also speaking at the event, Yemi Kale, group chief economist and managing director of research and trade intelligence at African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), said fragmented labour market data is limiting productivity, job creation and workforce planning.

Kale, a former statistician-general of the federation, said Nigeria’s youthful population presents an opportunity that can only be harnessed through quality education, stronger institutions and improved coordination between employers, policymakers and training institutions.

“Across Nigeria today, we have employers that are searching for skill, and at precisely the same time, millions of Nigerians are searching for opportunities they can access,” he said.

“The problem, however, is that they are often searching independently rather than collectively.”

‘FG PLANS NATIONAL SKILLS DATABASE TO ADDRESS LABOUR SHORTAGES’

Rimam Nuhu, special assistant in the office of the vice-president on workforce development, said the federal government has proposed a national skills database that would provide evidence-based intelligence to help the government identify skills shortages, improve workforce planning and support job creation.

“What this database does is provide government with evidence-based recommendations when it comes to policy regarding skills development,” Nuhu said.

“It will give us the intelligence required for us to identify where exactly those shortages are. It will help us to plan better and ultimately contribute to a more productive economy.”

Afolabi Imoukhuede, strategic partnership lead in the office of the vice-president, said the initiative is aimed at strengthening existing systems by integrating labour market data to support policymaking and improve outcomes for employers and job seekers.

“Data from various sources, including administrative and labour data, exists in silos, hindering effective policymaking,” Imoukhuede added.

“The roundtable, part of a series, emphasises the need to translate data into intelligence to forecast labour market demands and support industrialisation and competitiveness.”

Akubo Adegbe, senior special assistant to the president on coordination and delivery, said the roundtable was convened to address the fragmentation of labour market information across government institutions and the private sector.

He said the proposed national skills database would serve as the foundation for the Nigerian skills observatory, a platform expected to provide real-time labour market intelligence to guide workforce planning, skills development and evidence-based job creation policies.

“If our first Roundtable challenged us to better align skills with industry, this second Roundtable challenges us to better align information with action,” Adegbe said.

The federal government’s plan comes amid persistent unemployment and skills mismatch in Nigeria, where many graduates remain jobless despite employers reporting shortages of qualified workers in critical sectors.

The national skills database will serve as the foundation of the proposed Nigerian skills observatory, an initiative designed to provide real-time labour market data to guide workforce planning, skills development and evidence-based job creation policies.

Source: TheCable