President Bola Tinubu yesterday announced plans for Nigeria’s firstever National Industrial Manpower Development Policy, saying the country’s greatest asset lies in its people rather than its natural resources.

Speaking at the opening of the 2025 National Industrial Manpower Summit (NIMS) at the State House Conference Centre, Tinubu, represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, emphasised the urgent need to bridge the gap between educational output and industry requirements to unlock Nigeria’s economic potential. He said: “For a nation with a median age of about seventeen, Nigeria is an incredibly young country.

“This youthfulness is a gift, but it is also a responsibility. We must make our young people not just a demographic statistic but a central component of our policymaking process.” The President described human capital, alongside infrastructure and sound policy, as “the bridge between development and setback in every nation.”

He warned that Nigeria could not afford to “divest from our people because the world will not pause to wait for us”. Tinubu said the summit “is not just a forum for discussion; it is a call to produce actionable recommendations that will form the basis of Nigeria’s first-ever National Industrial Manpower Development Policy”.

He added: “I assure you that this administration will review, adopt, and implement viable proposals with urgency. “Our mission is to align the education and training of our young people, and indeed the larger workforce, with the needs of industry. “We must reverse the mismatch between what our institutions produce and what our economy requires.

“This cannot be realised unless we foster robust collaboration between the public and private sectors to prepare young Nigerians for the demands of today’s job market.”