Jane Salihu
Nigeria is repositioning its education system to serve as a direct pipeline to global employment, with the Federal Government moving to link training, certification and industry demand to opportunities in the international outsourcing and digitally enabled services market.
Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, disclosed this in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Ikharo Attah, on September 27, 2026, following the Minister’s presentation at the “Hire From Nigeria” side event on the margins of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Alausa said the Federal Ministry of Education was positioning itself as the supply engine of the national talent-export agenda by developing a pipeline of trained, certified and adaptable Nigerians whose skills match the requirements of global employers.
He said Nigeria’s youthful population, English-language advantage, cultural adaptability and growing digital capabilities provided a strong foundation for participation in the global outsourcing and digitally enabled services economy.
According to him, the opportunity could create jobs and increase export earnings while allowing Nigerians to build globally sourced careers without necessarily leaving the country.
The Minister, however, identified gaps between existing training and changing employer requirements, limited work-based learning and inadequate access to internationally recognised certification as challenges that must be addressed.
He said the Ministry was responding through curriculum reform, stronger accreditation and quality assurance, expanded digital and technical training, and greater involvement of employers in the design and delivery of programmes.
“We need a permanent employer-led feedback loop, not occasional curriculum reviews,” Alausa said, calling for employers to participate from programme design through training, assessment, certification and recruitment.
The Minister also disclosed that the Federal Government’s free Technical and Vocational Education and Training programme had attracted more than one million applications, with 160,000 trainees supported through about 1,200 centres nationwide, including Federal Technical Colleges and accredited private training centres.
He said the government was promoting multiple routes to employment and enterprise through university education, TVET, apprenticeships and continuous upskilling, with each pathway designed to support employment, entrepreneurship and further learning.
On the changing nature of work, Alausa said Nigeria must prepare young people to work alongside artificial intelligence rather than compete with the technology on routine tasks.
He identified creativity, judgement, domain knowledge, data literacy, cybersecurity, cloud services, software development, customer success, quality assurance and AI-enabled operations among the skills that would complement emerging technologies.
Through the Digital Training Academy, the Federal Government is also partnering with global learning providers, including Coursera and Pluralsight, to give 32,000 Nigerians free access to professional digital and technology training.
The training covers areas including product management, cloud computing, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and machine learning, fintech, quantum computing, natural language processing and other emerging technologies.
Alausa said the Student Venture Capital Grant was equally supporting students in STEMM disciplines to convert innovative ideas into viable enterprises, strengthening the link between education, innovation and entrepreneurship.
He urged international employers, Business Process Outsourcing operators, investors and development partners to move beyond expressions of interest and establish practical partnerships capable of producing investable talent pipelines.
The Minister called on employers to define their skills requirements, co-design training programmes, provide work-based learning opportunities, recognise credible Nigerian certifications and recruit from Nigerian talent pools.
He also urged BPO operators and investors to expand delivery centres beyond Nigeria’s largest commercial cities while supporting training infrastructure, connectivity, quality systems and management capacity.
Alausa said development partners could support the initiative through certification, instructor development, labour-market intelligence, inclusion of women and underserved communities, and systems that measure employment outcomes rather than simply counting trainees.
The Minister said these measures formed part of the Ministry’s role on the supply side of the National Talent Export Programme, which seeks to create one million export-linked jobs and produce 10 million globally certified Nigerians by 2030.
He said the Ministry, through its Supply Technical Working Group, would continue to deepen industry participation in curriculum development and certification, expand market-relevant TVET and digital-skills pathways, strengthen quality assurance and improve connections between training institutions and employers.
Alausa said the initiative aligned with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly its focus on human capital development, job creation, skills acquisition and inclusive economic growth.
He stressed that the long-term objective was to build an education and skills system capable of connecting Nigerian talent to opportunities in the global economy while enabling more young people to develop sustainable careers both within Nigeria and internationally.
