Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja
Germany has approved the second phase of the German Collaboration Project (KVP), aimed at strengthening and positioning chambers of commerce in Nigeria to play a pivotal role in youth skill acquisition.
The approval was made by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to the Head of Competence Centre Africa for the Giessen-Friedberg Chambers of Commerce of Germany, Dr. Kristen Albrecht.
Albrecht made the disclosure during a meeting with the executives of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture (NACCIMA) in Abuja, Friday.
She stated that during the first phase of the programme, efforts were focused on strengthening the capacities of NACCIMA, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), and the Ogun Chamber of Commerce to enable them to better serve their member companies.
Albrecht explained that they worked with the LCCI in particular to set up an innovation hub and a business centre in Ikeja, Lagos, where youths can scale up their skills, as well as get support from the chamber.
“For the second phase, we are planning to enlarge the innovation hub and instal tech hubs where also qualification courses will be held for young Nigerians that want to have more skills especially in Information Technology and so forth so they could either stay here and work in Nigeria or they will be prepared to go abroad, wherever they will like to go,” she said.
She added that the second phase would focus on fostering German-Nigerian economic ties, particularly through joint fair participation and a trade fair calendar that would feature two trade missions each between Nigeria and Germany.
Albrecht stated that they have also launched another platform called ‘The World Meets in Giessen’, where small and medium enterprises will meet annually for a B2B conference to secure partners for support and investment through AI-facilitated business matching.
Also speaking, the CEO of Giessen Chambers of Commerce, Dr. Matthias Leder, said they are enriching chambers of commerce in Nigeria to position them to serve as key drivers of the country’s economic growth.
He said the B2B conference tagged ‘The World Meets in Giessen’, which is coming up between June 8 and 10, 2026 in Germany, is a veritable platform for Nigeria’s SMEs to get international exposure and attract technology and investment that would aid their growth.
Leder commended their partnership with NACCIMA in the area of dual vocational training and urged them to now take ownership of the programme in order to deepen it across the country.
In his remarks, the President of NACCIMA, Jani Ibrahim, said their relationship with the German Chamber has come a long way, adding that they are now consolidating it to create more opportunities to train young Nigerians on different skills.
“It’s a relationship that have started well and we are only now consolidating it so that we will be able to have the opportunity to train young Nigerians and make them available to the world, because when they have vocational skills, they will become very marketable,” he said.
He noted that acquiring the requisite skills through the dual vocational training programme with the chamber would enable individuals who wish to work abroad to do so legally, rather than taking the unnecessary risks some youths face through illegal migration.
NACCIMA, Ibrahim said, is also partnering with the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) to train and facilitate the export of young, skilled Nigerian artisans to international markets as part of its talent development programme.
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