Airtel Nigeria partners with United Nations International Children Education Fund (UNICEF)  to empower about 20 million young Nigerians by 2030 with education, skills acquisition, employment, and entrepreneurship while leveraging access to digital platforms.

Speaking during the formal launch of the Generation Unlimited (GenU), a multi-sector initiative for the empowerment in Abuja on Monday, the chief executive officer, Airtel Nigeria, Segun Ogunsanya, said the initiative aligns with the telco’s philosophy of connecting, empowering and helping young Nigerians to become more productive and empowered to solve some of the most pressing problems affecting the country.

    “At Airtel, we believe that leveraging on technology, digital platforms, mobile broadband, and innovation can make a huge difference in creating both access and opportunities for youth even among those in the remotest and hard-to-reach locations in the country,” he said. Specifically, Ogunsanya vowed that Airtel will support the GenU initiative by providing connectivity and access to the Internet for every school and learner by zero-rating data cost, just as it will offer internship opportunities to participants as well as provide awards to some of the beneficiaries at the end of the training.

“In the long term, Airtel will fully support GenU through a partnership to cultivate an investment case for school connectivity leveraging our technical competence. We believe that through this partnership, we will go a long way to improve the skillsets of millions of young Nigerians across the country, which is one of the cardinal objectives of the government.” Also speaking at the event, the vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, commended Airtel, UNICEF, and other stakeholders for backing the GenU initiative with a clear deliverable of providing education, skills training, employment, and entrepreneurship opportunities for 20 million Nigerians in 10 years. The chief executive officer, GenU, Mr. Kevin Frey, thanked Airtel for its pledge of providing connectivity, access, internship opportunities, and awards for the program beneficiaries, noting that the success of GenU in Nigeria is success for Africa and the world. During the pilot phase of the program, Airtel will focus on providing zero-rated data to support 200 schools in Lagos and Kano states.