President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday received Mastercard’s Global Chief Executive Officer, Michael Miebach, at the State House, Abuja, using the occasion to pitch Nigeria’s young population as a tech-ready workforce capable of integration into the global digital economy.
Tinubu, according to a statement by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, welcomed Mastercard’s proposal to train five million businesses in digital skills, saying the initiative aligns with his administration’s push to formalise Nigeria’s vast informal sector.
He told the visiting delegation that more than 10,000 informal businesses were applying for registration daily, signalling the scale of opportunity available to digital payment and financial service companies.
“The most important asset is our youth,” the President said, pledging continued government support for Mastercard’s programmes targeting young Nigerians.
Miebach, who disclosed that he personally set up Mastercard’s Nigeria operations in 2011, said the company currently prevents $200 million in fraud annually and channels $2 billion in foreign exchange into the Nigerian economy.
He said Mastercard has developed a three-year programme, with a technical workshop already planned to equip 40 million small businesses with digital tools and cybersecurity capacity.
The Mastercard boss also announced plans for a Cyber Centre of Excellence to address threat intelligence, AI risks and incidence response, as part of broader commitments to digital resilience in Nigeria.
Also speaking, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, said the government aimed to empower at least three million Nigerian Youths within the digital economy, and pointed to opportunities for Mastercard to deepen its role in Nigeria’s credit market, including Mortgages, consumer loans and small business financing.
