By Michael Oche
Over 400,000 Nigerians have applied for the second phase of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) Renewed Hope Employment Initiative (RHEI), as of 11:59pm on Monday, 11th August, when the registration portal was shut down.
The portal for RHEI, targeted at providing vocational training for unemployed Nigerians between the age of 18 – 45, was opened on July 28 for Nigerians to register for the training programme.
Nigerian Pilot reports that the second Phase of the project was originally designed to provide training for 27,000 unemployed Nigerians in 30 different skills set.
However, addressing journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, NDE Director General, Silas Agara, disclosed that the agency has increased the number of beneficiaries to 41,307, following overwhelming interest indicated by Nigerians.
“If I have my way, I’ll train everyone,” Agara stated, while restating the commitment of the agency to close the unemployment gap in line with the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration job creation agenda.
Agara also disclosed that the Directorate plans to resettle at least 14,000 beneficiaries at the end of the training, stating that some development partners have indicated interest to support the programmes.
Giving a geographical breakdown of the applications received, the Director General said, about 109,566 applications were received by the agency from the Northwest zone, 93,724 from Northeast, 83,924 North Central, 56,118 from Southwest, 38,628 Southsouth and 29,946 from the Southeast States.
“We briefed the media the day we opened the portal for unemployed Nigerians within th age bracket of 18 to 45 year to apply for the phase-2 of the NDE’s Renewed Hope Employment Initiative (RHEI), therefore we thought it is wise to invite you again to let you know that we have shutdown the registration portal according to the two weeks timeline we scheduled for the registration.
“At this juncture, I want to inform Nigerians that as at the time we shut down the portal by 11:59 on Monday 11 August, a number of 411,906 persons successfully applied for the employment programme. And prior to some development partners who have indicated interest to support NDE, we have also increased the number of those that will benefit from the initial 27,000 to 41,307. This is almost a hundred percent increase from the initial figure.”
The DG went further to add that; “Across the 37 States of the Federation including FCT, the selection process has started and at least 4 personers from each electoral ward will make the list of the beneficiaries. The NDE is ensuring transparency in the whole process and that we can bet you on.
“We told you earlier that everything about this programme will be done via online, therefore we are ensuring that it is only those who registered online and meet the required criteria that will be selected.
“Processing of applications commenced from 12 August and will last till 22 August, 2025. Final approval of the application and notification of the selected participants and posting will be done from 25 to 29 August, while the flag office of the training will be conducted on September 4 nationwide and this will herald the
commencement of the training.”
Agara also stressed that the employment training programme was opened for all Nigerians to apply including persons with disabilities. Therefore, every Nigerian who has applied will be given equal opportunity accordingly to benefit from the Initiative.
