• Nigeria signed a deal with Coursera to expand digital skills training for youth

• The program will train Nigerians in AI, cybersecurity, data science and software engineering

• Nigeria is increasing digital training as demand for tech skills and youth unemployment rise

Nigeria has signed a partnership agreement with U.S. education technology company Coursera to equip its youth with digital skills sought by employers globally, as Africa’s most populous nation steps up efforts to prepare its workforce for the digital economy.

The initiative, called the Digital Training Academy, is part of the government’s broader push to expand training for digital careers.

The agreement was signed last week in London by Education Minister Maruf Tunji Alausa on the sidelines of the 2026 World Education Forum.

“Through this programme, young Nigerians will receive world class training in Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Cybersecurity, Cloud Computing, Software Engineering and other high demand digital fields, while earning globally recognised certifications valued by employers across the world,” Alausa said in a statement posted on social media on Thursday, May 21.

The program will be implemented in partnership with the National Open University of Nigeria and Yaba College of Technology, combining nationwide access with mentoring and support aligned with labor market needs. As part of the initiative, the government has fully funded 36,000 Coursera and Pluralsight licenses for the program’s first year.

The agreement comes days after the announcement of a separate initiative aimed at training 50,000 young people in digital skills. In collaboration with Ericsson, the government had already launched the Connect NextGen Innovation Hackathon in February 2026, an intensive four-month digital training program targeting 50,000 youth.

Also in February 2026, Young Advocates for a Sustainable and Inclusive Future, a civil society organization focused on sustainable development and inclusion, announced plans to train 15,000 disadvantaged young Nigerians through IBM’s SkillsBuild platform.

The initiatives underscore Nigeria’s push to strengthen digital skills training amid a broader digital shift reshaping the labor market. The World Bank estimates that around 230 million jobs in sub-Saharan Africa will require digital skills by 2030. In Nigeria, between 35% and 45% of jobs are expected to require those skills over that period.

As of June 2025, 23% of Nigerians aged between 18 and 35 were unemployed and actively seeking work, according to an Afrobarometer survey. The study also found that 32% of people in that age group had stopped looking for work altogether.

Isaac K. Kassouwi