The Blacks Ancestral Native Communities (BANC) Foundation has launched a human-capital development initiative aimed at creating employment opportunities for young Africans and addressing the economic factors driving irregular migration.
The initiative, Africa Global Employability and Mobility Solutions (AfriGEMS), was developed by the foundation and is being implemented through the Pathways Institute for Mobility Alternatives (PIMA).
Founder of BANC Foundation and convener of the Anti-Irregular Migration Summit, Dr Chibuzor Onyema, said the initiative was designed to ensure that skills acquisition translates into decent jobs, sustainable livelihoods and income-generating opportunities.
Onyema, an advocate for regular migration pathways, said skills training alone would not stop young Africans from embarking on irregular migration if those skills could not provide them with viable economic opportunities.
According to him, AfriGEMS equips young Africans with globally relevant industrial, technical, vocational, digital and green skills through practical training and apprenticeships linked to certification, employment and entrepreneurship.
He said the initiative was not focused on certificates alone but on creating a practical pathway through which participants could develop competencies that lead to employment, enterprise creation and productive livelihoods.
“A distinguishing feature of AfriGEMS is its deliberate connection between skills development, employability and responsible human mobility,” Onyema said.
He explained that participants would be prepared not merely to obtain certificates but to acquire demonstrable competencies linked to apprenticeships, local employment, self-employment, enterprise creation and other income-generating opportunities.
He added that where legitimate opportunities exist, the model would also provide pathways to ethical and regular cross-border employment.
Onyema said the intended progression was from skills acquisition to occupational competence, apprenticeship or enterprise, employment and sustainable livelihood, and ultimately regular mobility opportunities for those who choose to migrate.
He said discouraging young people from leaving their countries without addressing the economic conditions pushing them to migrate would not provide a sustainable solution.
According to him, AfriGEMS seeks to create “credible economic alternatives” at home while recognising that migration itself was not necessarily the problem.
He said the major concern was migration through unsafe and irregular channels, which often exposed young people to trafficking, exploitation and other abuses.
Onyema said the model would equip participants with technical, vocational, digital and green skills that could be applied both within their countries and in legitimate international labour markets.
He said the initiative was therefore intended to link employability with safe, orderly and regular labour mobility rather than simply attempting to prevent migration.
The BANC founder said the success of the initiative would depend on partnerships among governments, employers, training institutions, development partners, international organisations and licensed employment agencies.
He called on the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, relevant government agencies including the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), universities and polytechnics, employers, as well as the International Labour Organisation (ILO), International Organisation for Migration (IOM), German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) and International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), to partner on creating effective pathways to curb irregular migration and its associated risks.
According to him, training should respond to verified labour-market demand, while employers should provide apprenticeships and jobs and governments should facilitate the institutional framework required to connect skills to decent work.
He said development partners and international organisations could support standards, certification and safeguards needed to protect young people along the employment and mobility chain.
The BANC initiative builds on the foundation’s advocacy for addressing the root causes of irregular migration through skills development, economic opportunity and safer migration pathways.
