Seal of the Office of the Special Assistant to the President on Capacity Development Office of the Special Assistant to the President on Capacity Development Capacity Development Training Initiative

Physical training in Lafia, 14 to 16 September. Check whether your place is confirmed and when your cohort comes. No sign-in needed.

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The seal of the Office of the Special Assistant to the President on Capacity Development, the Renewed Hope Partners emblem and the CDTIN mark, above participants at a 2025 training session

Nasarawa State · 2026 pilot

Skills that turn into an income, in every Local Government Area.

A federal pilot training 1,500 residents of Nasarawa State in agriculture, digital work and business development — one guided week online, two days at a centre in Lafia, and a closing day of pitching, awards and graduation.

Capacity Development Training Initiative

Implemented by the Office of the Special Assistant to the President on Capacity Development, under the supervision of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

4 September 20264 Sep

Sign-up opens

Sign up on this platform, ten days before training at the centre. Your NIN is checked and you join a cohort.

7 to 13 September 20267–13 Sep

One week online, on your phone

Seven guided days in your stream. The best performers are selected for the physical classes.

14 to 16 September 202614–16 Sep

Three days in Lafia

Two days of practical training for those selected, then the closing day: every participant pitches, and the top participants are supported with a grant and a job.

Sign-up is not open at present. It is announced through the Local Government Areas, traditional institutions, cooperatives and the relevant MDAs before it opens on 4 September 2026.

The pilot at a glance

What the scheme commits to

Sign-up opens on 4 September 2026, ten days before the physical training begins.

1,500
participants signed up and trained
13
Local Government Areas drawn from, none excluded
3
training streams, five subject units each
10
days end to end: seven online, two at the centre, one closing day

Delivery

The ten days, in order

Sign up on this platform, learn online for a guided week on your phone, and — if you are among the best performers — go on to the centre in Lafia for the closing days.

  1. From 4 September 2026 Sign-up

    Sign-up opens on the programme platform

    You sign up yourself, on this platform, ten days before the physical training. Your National Identification Number is checked and you are shortlisted and placed in a cohort before the guided week begins.

  2. 7 to 13 September 2026 Guided week online

    One week of guided online learning, on your phone

    The foundations of the chosen stream are delivered on the programme platform over seven days, with facilitated sessions and short assignments. The best performers in the guided week are selected for the physical classes at the centre.

  3. Monday 14 September 2026 Physical training

    Day one at the centre

    Applied instruction in the chosen stream, delivered in person at the training centre in Lafia, for the participants selected by their performance in the guided week.

  4. Tuesday 15 September 2026 Physical training

    Day two at the centre

    Supervised practical work and the competency assessment against which certification is issued.

  5. Wednesday 16 September 2026 Closing

    Pitch, awards and graduation

    Every participant who completes the programme gets to pitch their business. Awards, the ₦3,000,000 grant and a job opportunity for the top participants, and certificates are presented, as at the close of the 2025 programme.

Training streams

Three streams, one place each

A participant holds a place in one stream only, so that the 1,500 are 1,500 distinct individuals.

Agriculture

Agriculture Skills

A guided week online on the range of agricultural opportunities across the North Central zone — crops, livestock, poultry, fish and processing — then two days at the centre turning modern and traditional techniques into real, usable skills on the value chains Nasarawa produces at scale.

700 places One week online, then two days at the centre

Digital

Digital Skills

A guided week online, phone-first and built for an ordinary smartphone: social media for income, finding opportunities online, and using AI tools for ideation, research and learning — then two days at the centre turning that foundation into a marketable specialisation.

400 places One week online, then two days at the centre

Business Development

Business Development Skills

How to identify, ideate and execute a business: the common mistakes that sink new enterprises, how to learn and start rather than wait for perfect conditions, and using AI tools for market research and competitor analysis — built on the evidence that training which builds proactive initiative and simplifies financial practice into usable rules produces substantially larger gains than a conventional classroom course.

400 places One week online, then two days at the centre

What you get

Sign up, learn online, and the best go to Lafia

How the physical classes are decided

Places in the physical classes in Lafia on 14 to 16 September 2026 are given by performance in the online week.

For the top participants

At the end of the programme, the top participants are supported with a ₦3,000,000 grant and a job opportunity.

For everyone who finishes

Every participant who completes the programme presents their business at the closing pitch and may be supported.

About the initiative

Delivered under the authority of the Presidency

A pilot in the exact sense of the word: run once at zone scale, documented, and evaluated.

The Capacity Development Training Initiative is the training programme of the Office of the Special Assistant to the President on Capacity Development. The Nasarawa State pilot is implemented by that Office in conjunction with, and under the supervision of, the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

It is designed so that the decision to extend it to the remaining geo-political zones can rest on measured results rather than on assertion.

Track record

What the initiative has already delivered

Figures are stated only at the level the surviving records evidence.

In January and February 2025 the initiative delivered a five-track training programme at the Atlas Training and Development Institute in Kano State, issued signed Certificates of Completion, and awarded ₦1,700,000 in prizes to three ventures at a pitch competition on 1 February 2025. It received 401 applications for 200 places in two days.

No participant-trained figure, completion rate or outcome statistic is published until the record that supports it is in hand. What is withheld, and why, is listed in full.

Photographs

From the training floor

Photographed at the programme delivered in Kano State in January and February 2025. These images are not of the Nasarawa State pilot, which has not yet been delivered.

Take part

Ready to sign up?

Sign up yourself, in a few minutes, on this platform. There is no fee at any stage of this programme.