FG Begins Registration of Youths Aged 15-35 for New Data Bank

The Federal Government has begun nationwide registration of Nigerians aged 15 to 35 under the National Youth Data Bank (NYDB).

The goal is to build a comprehensive database of the country's youth population and link them to jobs, skills and other opportunities.

Minister of Youth Development, Comrade Ayodele Olawande, disclosed this in Abuja while launching the project.

He said the initiative would capture youths in both formal and informal sectors, including agriculture, sports, creative industries and technology.

Olawande said reliable data on young Nigerians would help government understand their needs, skills and locations. This, he said, would improve the planning and delivery of youth development programmes.

He stressed that the database would answer key questions about who these youths are, where they live, what they can do, and what opportunities they need.

“We also want to get the formal and the informal youth to make sure that they are part of this. We want everybody,” Olawande said.

He added: “We even want to know the youth in agriculture. We want to know the youth in sport. We want to know all those in creative tech and all that, so that even when we say some people need jobs, we know, okay, these people need skills.”

The minister stressed that the initiative is a continuous government programme, not an electoral exercise.

Registration Points Set Up In Schools Nationwide

Managing Director/CEO of POGMA Nigeria Limited, the project’s technical partner, Otunba Oluyinka Akerele, said registration points have been established in educational institutions.

These will be extended to local government areas and wards across the country.

“For the Nigerian youth registration, we have created cluster points in schools, polytechnics, universities, College of Education. These are targets for the formal sectors,” Akerele said.

He added that enumerators would be deployed across the 774 local government areas to reach youths, including those in hard-to-reach communities.

Akerele Says Registration Age Follows National Youth Policy

Akerele called on young Nigerians to embrace the exercise.

“All we appeal to our youth to do is to embrace the programme, go out en masse and be registered. It is only when you are registered that we know who you are, where you are, and how you can benefit from the supposed government dividend of democracy,” he said.

He explained that the 15 to 35 age bracket follows Nigeria’s official Youth Policy. “You are addressed as a youth in Nigeria once you are 15, and once you are 35, you still remain a youth,” Akerele said.

He said the database would be updated regularly to capture young Nigerians as they turn 15. “For those that are not up to 15, that’s why you have an updating, just like you have with INEC. Once they are 15, our enumerators are there to capture them,” he added.