2025 budget: FG omits allocation for youth confab

The Federal Government didn’t make any financial provision for the proposed National Youth Confab scheduled to hold in February 2025, Sunday PUNCH reports.

Our correspondent observed that despite an allocation of NN14,968,237,306 bn to the Federal Ministry of Youth Development in the 2025 budget, there was no mention of allocation for the confab.

President Bola Tinubu had in his October 1 nationwide address announced a 30-day youth confab.

“The conference aims to provoke meaningful dialogue and empower our young people to participate actively in nation-building. By ensuring that their voices are heard in shaping the policies that impact their lives, we are creating a pathway for a brighter tomorrow,” the President said.

While responding to inquiries by Sunday PUNCH on December 8, 2024, the Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, said delegates would only converge on the FCT, Abuja, for one week after spending three weeks engaging youths at the grassroots.

“We will do the confab by the first week of February. It is not going to be the usual confab. That is why about three weeks of this confab will be spent with the grassroots,” he said.

However, barely two months to February, the government has failed to provide a budget for the 30-day event.

When contacted on the omission of the financial provision for the confab, Olawande said the ministry had its strategy, and that the confab would not be “as usual”.

“Everybody has his strategy. We have our strategy for how we want to make it work. As I said, it is not going to be the normal confab where we say we are spending billions. It’s not the hotel confab all that”, he told Sunday PUNCH.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has budgeted the sum of N428,269,464m for other youth initiatives and programmes in the year 2025.

Among the initiatives are the Commonwealth Youth Programmes at N100m; Local Youth Exchange programme, N62m; and Commemoration of the World Youth Skills Day, N80m, among others.