Presidency launches initiative to enroll 10 million Nigerians in empowerment program

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By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

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The Presidency has commenced registration for the federal government’s free nationwide training of 10 million Nigerians on financial inclusion and literacy.

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The registration process is to be undertaken by WAWUAfrica, Africa’s premier integrated leadership and organisational excellence ecosystem aimed at empowering women, with the portal http://wawuafrica.com/onboarding.

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Vice President Kashim Shettima launched the registration exercise during a virtual meeting of the PreCEFI, six professional bodies and other development partners, including the World Bank, WAWUAfrica, African Union (AU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), among others.

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Represented by the Special Adviser to the President on Economic Affairs, Dr. Tope Kolade Fasua, the Vice President expressed confidence that the flagship initiative of President Bola Tinubu will not only impact on Nigerians but eventually transform into a global impact emanating from Nigeria.

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He said, “The flag-off ceremony for the upskilling initiative will become one of the flagship programmes of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in terms of his impact on the Nigerian people and how this can transmogrify into a global impact coming from Nigeria.

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“I commend the widely focused areas of the potential impact to cover digital literacy and information technology, IT literacy, financial literacy, economic literacy, service delivery literacy, healthcare and wellness, creative arts and design, business and entrepreneurship skills, skills trade and engineering skills, hospitality and tourism skills.”

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Senator Shettima applauded WAWUAfrica, the World Bank, Alison Women Entrepreneurship, African Union (AU), ECOWAS, NITDA, EU and other development partners for collaborating effectively in actualising the training programme.

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“We believe that this programme will continue to expand in terms of partnership and collaboration until we achieve the maximum utility and mileage required,” he added.

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On his part, the Technical Adviser to the President on Economic and Financial inclusion (Office of the Vice President), Dr Nurudeen Zauro, noted that a lot of conversations were ongoing with all the stakeholders on how to educate Nigerians to get involved in the training process.

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He stated that the citizens must be well guided in order not to be hoodwinked into paying for the training, as well as to be guided on how to log in to the portal and register.

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“The essence here is so that Nigerians can be well guided. First of all, this training is free of charge. We don’t want to have a situation whereby anybody would be requested to make any form of payment, and also to be well guided where you’re going to log in to have your details imputed onto the system for you to successfully get trained,” Dr Zauro said.

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There were also goodwill messages from the six professional bodies and the development partners, all pledging to ensure that skills on financial literacy that would lead to financial inclusion are not just acquired but valuable, and make sure that the registration platform launched is built on trust, transparency and accountability.

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Recall that the Office of the Vice President, through the Presidential Committee on Economic & Financial Inclusion (PreCEFI), had in February, 2026, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with six professional bodies to jointly design training programmes, certification pathways, digital skills initiatives, and mentorship platforms that would strengthen Nigeria’s financial and enterprise workforce.

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The training is targeted at equipping Nigerians, particularly women and youths, with essential financial skills, investment knowledge, and digital competencies for sustainable wealth creation.

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The professional bodies include the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN); Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN); Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS); National Institute of Credit Administration (NICA); Chartered Risk Management Institute (CRMI) and Nigeria Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NIIE).

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