The Fair brings collectively authorities, employers and growth companions to broaden employment alternatives, strengthen workforce readiness and promote inclusive hiring.
The Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment (FMLE), with the assist of the Mastercard Foundation in partnership with Jobberman Nigeria and the GIZ SEDEC Cluster, has convened the Abuja Job & Career Fair 2026 to strengthen connections between skills and employers, enhance workforce readiness and broaden entry to employment alternatives.
Held beneath the theme ‘Opportunities, Connections and Impact,’ the Fair options employer engagements, profession counselling, CV evaluations and coaching periods on employability and abilities growth, with a deal with increasing entry for girls, individuals with disabilities and different underserved teams.
“The Abuja Job & Career Fair is about more than bringing talents and employers into one space. It is about creating connections that lead to employment and giving participants a clearer pathway to dignified and fulfilling work,” mentioned the Country Head of Programmes at Jobberman Nigeria, Olamide Adeyeye.
She famous that bodily profession gala’s stay important, as many younger folks nonetheless face limitations to on-line alternatives, including that greater than 150,000 folks secured jobs by way of job gala’s, profession occasions and job centres prior to now yr.
Opening the Fair, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Muhammadu Maigari Dingyadi, pledged to broaden entry to jobs by way of public job centres and the National Electronic Labour Exchange (NELEX), the ministry’s digital job-matching platform.
He recognized abilities mismatches and weak hyperlinks between job seekers and employers as key challenges and urged employers to look past educational {qualifications}.
Delivering a goodwill message on behalf of Dr Markus Wagner, Country Director, GIZ Nigeria and ECOWAS, Oladoyin Olawaiye famous that GIZ and the ministry have established 11 job centres throughout 5 states beneath the Skills Development for Youth Programme, serving over 65,000 folks, greater than half of them girls.
For participant Victory Izevbizua, the Fair delivered on each fronts. She got here hoping to meet employers in Customer Service and Data Analytics and met a number of, however her spotlight was a Jobberman profession counselling session, the place a counsellor reviewed her CV and gave her clear, actionable recommendation on tailoring it for various roles.
“The job seekers I have met here are innovative, willing to work and enthusiastic about what they do. With talents like these, we believe we can change the narrative of healthcare in Nigeria,” mentioned Anomiri Chidozie-Pascal, Founder and CEO of Big Panda Medicare (PandaCare), which is recruiting for administrative, public well being, information evaluation, social media and digital advertising roles.
The Fair is supported by the Mastercard Foundation, by way of its Young Africa Works Programme, and worldwide growth companions, together with the European Union (EU), the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.
