Abuja, August 16, 2025 – The Director General of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), His Excellency Silas Ali Agara, has announced that 41,307 beneficiaries will be shortlisted for the second phase of the Renewed Hope Employment Initiative (RHEI 2).
The program, which is aimed at tackling unemployment through entrepreneurship training and skills acquisition, will begin shortlisting successful candidates in the first week of September.
Speaking at a press conference held at the NDE headquarters in Abuja, Agara said the number of participants for this phase had been increased from 21,000 in the first phase to 41,000. He explained that some schemes were merged to accommodate the high level of interest expressed across the country.
The NDE had earlier launched the application portal for RHEI 2 on July 28, 2025. The two-week registration window for skills acquisition training closed on August 11.
According to the Director General, the selection process is currently underway to determine those who will benefit from the program.
“There is a certain level of transparency which is the portal. Anybody can go. Because it will be wrong for us to sit in the headquarters and approve names and lodge it on the state. That would be the wrong way to go about it because the training centers that are available to us are scattered all over the state,” Agara said while addressing journalists.
The NDE boss revealed that 41,307 successful applicants will receive notifications of their selection on the 1st and 2nd of September.
He also stated that each ward across the country will have a minimum of four beneficiaries who will take part in entrepreneurship training. The training will cover about 30 different skill sets that were identified through a nationwide need assessment.
Agara further noted that the initiative has gained the support of financial institutions and partner organizations.
“We are happy that some of the financial institutions, some of the institutions we are working with will be supporting us in terms of settling some of our beneficiaries. So that made it a bit easier for us to increase the number of beneficiaries,” he said.
The Renewed Hope Employment Initiative is part of the government’s broader employment generation strategy to empower young Nigerians with relevant skills for self-reliance.