By Favour Ulebor, Abuja

Founder and Chief Servant of Kavod Relief Initiative KRI, Mr. Ransomed Chibueze, has said, football can serve as a powerful entry point for introducing underserved adolescents to technology and digital skills.

Ransomed said this at the Football Meets Tech: Goals for Skills programme organised by Kavod Relief Initiative in partnership with Guardian Initiative for Community Development GICD, held recently in Jos, Plateau State.

Explaining the thinking behind the initiative, Ransomed said many adolescents in underserved communities lack access to formal education, limiting their ability to contribute meaningfully to society.

According to him, football was deliberately chosen as a gateway to reach young people and link them to digital opportunities.

He explained that the programme replaces conventional cash prizes with laptops, skills training and mentorship to ensure lasting impact on participants.

He said, “I’m a fitness person and everything I do is drawn from the interactions that I have got physically. One of the prevalent issues these adolescents face is that most of them don’t have access to basic or formal education and what this means is they are unable to contribute meaningfully to the society.

“So one of our key strategies is using sports as an entry point to other services. So basically it’s using sports to facilitate entry into tech and digital services and ensuring that they are empowered to be able to contribute meaningfully to the society even though they were not able to go through the four walls of a formal school.

“For cash prizes you can’t really control what you do with it, but replacing it with skills which is basically the tech and other digital skills like software engineering, product management, front end developers, back end and all of that means that they are able to learn a skill that it’s going to help them contribute meaningfully to the society,” he said.

Ransomed added that adolescence is a critical stage of human development.

“Adolescence is basically the make or break point for most humans. Meeting them at this point and helping them and guiding them to make better choices and better life choices and decisions means that would have less social vices and would have more meaningful and quality adolescents and in the nearby future adults,” he said.

Also speaking, Plateau State Commissioner, Women Affairs and Social Development, Karoline Dafur, represented by Director of Child Development, Mr. Dombin Sunday, said initiatives like the programme help groom children early and prepare them for responsibility.

He stressed the importance of skills for the girl child and vulnerable children.

He said, “To catch the little ones, it is at this age, the younger ages, that we groom them to be something in the society. Occasions like this football tournament and GBV lecture help to discipline them.

“When they have a skill, even if white collar jobs are not available, they will be able to stand on their own. That is why skill acquisition is good for the girl child,” he added.

Executive Director of Guardian Initiative for Community Development GICD, Ubangari Donald Bitkwoet, said the partnership with Kavod Relief Initiative was natural.

Bitkwoet described the football meets tech model as innovative.

He said, “Our objectives and priorities are aligned, especially in working with children from underserved communities with the least possible chances of realising their potentials.

“Football has its own purpose in terms of social and emotional development of children, and on the other hand tech prepares them for the future, makes them employable and able to solve contemporary and future problems,” he said.

Former Nigerian international footballer, Mr. Terry Envoh, said initiatives like Goals for Skills are critical for discovering grassroots talents and preparing young people for life after football.

“I started just like this, and football is a short time career. Acquiring skills is the best because if anything happens, you can fall back on it,” he said.

On the community impact, Community Leader of Angwan Rukuba, representative of the community leader, Indelible Joshua Ayiki, said the programme promoted unity and talent discovery among children.

He thanked the organisers for bringing opportunities to the community.

At the end of the tournament, Team 1, tagged End Violence Against Children, emerged winners and received ₦200,000, while Team 4, Say No to Drug Abuse, finished second with ₦100,000. Laptops, scholarships and mentorship opportunities were also awarded to outstanding participants.