The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment has inaugurated the Young Professionals Programme (YPP) designed to encourage skills acquisition among young officers to ramp up commodity production and exports.
The Trade Minister, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, who launched the programme in Abuja, said it would serve as a continuous career development strategy to enhance speedy economic growth and development.
The minister expressed optimism that the knowledge gained from the programme would tremendously assist in decision-making and policy formulation and implementation and close knowledge-gaps in the public sector.
He maintained that the productivity of the workforce depends on the skills and knowledge they have.
The Minister of State, Ambassador Mariam Katagum, said the programme has been identified as a veritable platform to provide leadership development training, skills development, coaching as well as mentorship.
Katagum, represented by the permanent secretary in the ministry, Dr. Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, said skilled human capital was pivotal as well as considered to be one of the fundamental solutions to challenges of economic growth and development.