The Nation Newspaper

Tag: unemployment

  • Educators’ network set to tackle unemployment

    In order to boost employment and enhance the quality of education in both private and public schools in Nigeria, CcHUB – a Nigerian social innovation company has rolled out plans to train hundreds of graduates to teach STEM subjects.
    According to the Practice Lead, Ms. Desiree Craig, re:learn seeks to launch this scheme to meet the global need of 69 million teachers required to fulfill UNESCO’s global education goal of Education for All. Her words “By 2030, Sub–Saharan Africa would need to train 17 million new teachers to provide every child with primary and secondary education, a majority of which would be required by Nigeria due to her population size. This means an average of 1.2 million new teachers will be required to join the education workforce each year. This poses a challenge to not only bridge the gap in terms of quantity, but also quality of teachers”, she said.
    The re:learn Educators’ Network Craig pointed out is a new wave of Educators capable of leveraging technology to educate the next generation. Recent graduates who are passionate about education and have an appreciation for technology are recruited and trained as full time educators. This is especially coming at a time when unemployment rates in recent times have been on the increase “Craig stated.
    Craig revealed that through a thorough application and selection process, successful candidates are trained, and then deployed to schools.
    Re:learn, Co–Creation Hub’s Education Practice is focused on helping students and schools use technology in smart ways to enhance learning.

    The project tagged “re:learn Educators’ Network” is billed to kick off in Lagos, Jigawa and Kano States including Abuja this month.

    Over the past 5 years, CcHUB’s work in Education has spanned the Southern and Northern parts of Nigeria. In particular, the focus has been on identifying innovative ways technology can improve learning outcomes for students across the country.

  • Foundation tackles unemployment

    The crusade to provide jobs for teeming youths has begun in earnest in the Southeast as well as in Delta, Edo and Benue states. Leading the campaign is an organisation called Intafact Hero’s Foundation.

    Last year, the foundation empowered 24 youths with N50 million in the Southeast before proceeding to other zones.

    Briefing reporters in Onitsha, the state commercial capital, the regional director of the foundation, Mr. Godwin Oche, said the organisation had not concluded with the plan of raising the fund beyond N50 million.

    The foundation is collaborating with the newly established Nnamdi Azikiwe University Business School led by Prof Austine Nnonyelu and Chike Okoli Entrepreneurial Centre of the institution, headed by Prof Ngozi Anyikwa.

    Oche said the aim of the second phase of the foundation was to create the culture of entrepreneurship among the youths in the country.

    Oche said, “The whole process is geared towards giving back to our communities by empowering the young population to greater productivity and systematically collaborating with the government to fight poverty and unemployment through this scheme.

    “This initiative focuses on helping young people to imbibe the culture of entrepreneurship and to build their businesses from ideation to actualisation. This year, the foundation will collate entries from Monday, March 20 till Friday, April 28 at the designated centers across the states as well as our online medium.

    “This programme is a very timely programme as it directly impact on the youths and consequently grows the economy bearing in mind the current economic situation. The programme has in no small way started the process of reducing unemployment as it helps the youths to bring their innovative business to life.

    “At the wake of this programme the Intafact Hero’s Foundation empowered 24 successful applicants and they were rewarded to the tune of 50 million for the growth and expansion of their various businesses. The top three winners that emerged from last year’s edition are here present with us. Permit me for a second to recognise Mr. Charles Obinwugo our star winner, Ngozi Areh and Francis Alisi.”

  • Tackling youth unemployment with agriculture

    Tackling youth unemployment with agriculture

    To  experts,  agriculture will really create jobs when the youth are involved, DANIEL ESSIET reports.

    Founder of Agrihub Ronke Aderinoye is an ex-banker and agro-entrepreneur. Her expertise is in agriculture and rural services. She works with farmers in Ogun State.  She has seen the image of  poor, ragged and weather-beaten farmers which puts off many young people. She is determined to change  the picture of the business to encourage  young  people  to have  a second thought about agriculture as the source of jobs.

    For her, the sector has huge potential. She has seen the future around agriculture as the main force in social and economic transformation of the economy.

    She said there was a need for a vibrant agribusiness private sector that would work alongside the government to link farmers with consumers.

    Her solutions include boosting rural development through a chain of activities that add value to agricultural products, and empowering youths to run small businesses.

    She started Young Farmer’s Incubator Programme (YFIP), in collaboration with Eweko Concept and Epe Agribusiness Cluster, to train youths to start up a farm. The goal of the programme is to grow the next generation of agribusiness professionals. The programme is designed to train youths between the ages of 18 and 26, who aspire to start up a farm but neither have the capital nor the knowledge of farming, through a 100 per cent hands-on farm training for  four months.

    The programme, according to her,  is a 16-month intensive course on technical and non-technical aspects of agribusiness.

    The trainees will undergo full- time farm training in Epe, Lagos State. The first stream of YFIP, she  explained, will focus on vegetables  such as tomatoes, pepper, cucumber and cabbage. The curriculum will cover pre-planting and post planting operations, post-harvest management practices, business planning, farm records and book keeping, agricultural marketing, as well as legal, finance and tax matters.

    The facilitators are credible, competent and have proven track record of successes in their respective businesses and fields, and have a cumulative experience of over 35. This programme is divided into five stages and each participant is expected to successfully complete each stage before moving up to the next stage.

    At incubation stage, successful candidates will get three months’   training when they will be allotted mini-plots. Mentors will help and answers.

    The incubation stage will cover key drivers of agribusinesses namely, business planning, agricultural marketing, laws, farm management, pre- and post-harvest handling, pre-and post-planting management and opportunities across the agriculture value chain. After this, successful candidates will be move to the next stage.

    At  the accelerator, successful candidates will be provided with land for farming. Seeds and other required tools will be provided. Production at this stage will be supervised by the AgriHub Nigeria and will continue for four  planting cycles. Candidates will be better exposed to the realities of farming at this stage as they will be doing most of the farm work and also the marketing work.

    One major benefit participants will get at the end of this stage is that they will have farm records of over 12 months, which will put them in a better stead to access finance to set up their own farm. Participants in YFIP must be willing to stay in Epe throughout the programme.

    Accommodation would be provided for participants. One area, she sees huge potential is in rice production. The rice sector alone has the potential to employ many of the 17 million young people who enter the job market in sub-Saharan Africa each year.

    With Agropreneur Nigeria, her organisation is holding bi-monthly Green Table sessions to  assist middle and upper class workers, entrepreneurs, and investors to understand the rice value chain and to tap into the opportunities.

    She has support from the Chief Executive Officer, Kereksuk Rice Farm, Rotimi Williams, whose 50,000 hectares rice farm in Nasarawa State provides enough food and jobs. For him, increased focus on agriculture could enhance productivity, reduce food prices, increase incomes and create employment. To achieve this, he said young people’s involvement in this process is crucial.

    Kereksuk Rice Farm has become a successful agribusiness enterprise. Williams believes the future is bright for agribusiness in Nigeria.

     

  • The creative industry is our life and our job – Austen Peters

    The creative industry is our life and our job – Austen Peters

    Ms. Bolanle Austen-Peters has described the creative industry  as a money-spinning sector that the Federal Government must not neglect its development.

    “Art is money; art is life, art is job, art adds value to the individual and the environment,” the Founder and Managing Director, Terrakulture, a cultural firm, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday.

    She said in Lagos that it if well developed by the government, it would also boost the nation’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP) and employment generation for its teeming unemployed youths.

    She said that the industry was blessed with enormous potentialities that could be harnessed to solve the unemployment challenges facing the country.

    “Some of the areas of specialisation that the youths can venture into in the sector are: visuals, food, music, dance, and script writing.

    “ These areas are capable of employing millions of Nigerian youths and solve problems facing them,” she said.

    She also said that the industry was a fertile ground for the production of artistic and movie producers/directors, fashion designers, models, image makers and painters.

    Austen-Peters tasked the National Bureau of Statistics to disclose the data on revenue generated from creative arts and its contributions to the nation’s economy.

    She said that the data would enable government to know the immense contributions of the industry to national development in the areas of employment, revenue and foreign exchange earnings.

    She said that her firm had engaged several youths since its inception in 2013 through its periodic organised exhibitions.

    Austen-Peters said that the organized private sector should be ready to partner the Federal Government under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative because the former had lots of statutory responsibilities to perform.

  • Building skills to reduce unemployment

    Building skills to reduce unemployment

    Training in employment skills plays an important role in equipping young people and adults for work and social integration. To this end, the Lagos State Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment has held a skill training for the unemployed, DANIEL ESSIET reports.

    n  a  deteriorating  job  market,  youth  unemployment  rates  are, at least, twice as high as those in the active population and even higher for disadvantaged young adults.

    This has given the Lagos State government great concern. Over the last one year, vocational programmes have been strengthen to improve employment prospects for disadvantaged young adults.

    Alongside this,  more flexible training programmes have been adopted, which place greater emphasis on tailoring training to the demands of the job market.

    Addressing some unemployed youths in Lagos, who attended a training programme, Commissioner for Wealth Creation and Employment, Babatunde Fuad Durosinmi-Etti, said employability skill training is one of the  solutions to solving youth unemployment.

    He  said the ministry was creating an environment that would be easy to start and sustain businesses. This, according to him, would help  grow  the  economy and create jobs that the state   sorely needs.

    To improve productivity, he  said  the government was also taking steps to encourage skills development, stating that the strategy has focused on meeting employers’ skill needs, and support vocational education.

    Durosinmi-Etti maintained that the ministry was working with partners to connect young people to work environments and develop the skills required to navigate them.

    The priorities for the ministry,  according to Durosinmi-Etti, were to support sustained economic growth and improve labour market conditions, recognise that businesses create jobs, not government.

    He said the goal of the programme was to help the youth find jobs by equipping them with the right sets of skills. The programme was designed to benefit the private sector and contribute to the state’s economic growth by providing businesses with affordable labour and  building skills that were lacking in the local market.

    The ministry, he reiterated, was dedicated to supporting small businesses and entrepreneurial opportunities.

  • Firm holds free seminar to address unemployment

    As part of its corporate social responsibility, an online portal, Mannastores.com has concluded plans to stage ‘I’m a Goldmine challenge,’ a training for budding entrepreneurs and business owners across the country.

    The event scheduled for Saturday, 25th February, holds at 48 Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos.

    In a release made available to The Nation, the Chief Executive Officer, Mannastores.com, Mr. Ayo Benson Olarewaju said the programme is aimed at addressing the growing unemployment and entrepreneurship challenge that Nigerians are going through in the 21st century.

    ‘We want to teach people how to get a job of their dream and we will pick five exceptional delegates and personally coach them for four weeks to get their dream jobs,” he assured.

    Olarewaju, who recently authored a book Goldmine of Your Mind, further hinted that he hopes to teach business startup and business growth using both offline and online intelligence derived from many years as an entrepreneur and business consultant.

    Citing Albert Einstein, a renowned scientist prophetic phrase, ‘Nothing happens until something moves,’ the Oxford-trained accountant said there is need for aspiring entrepreneurs to seize the moment in order to remake their world. Waxing philosophical, he said: “Your mind is a goldmine, use it!”

  • How we’re tackling unemployment – Ambode, Obaseki, others

    Gov. Godwin Obaseki of Edo State on Thursday said the huge unemployment crisis in the country was worrisome.

    The governor made the remark at the 1st Annual Lecture of Freedom Online Media with the theme ‘Unemployment: How Do We Tame This Monster’

    Obaseki who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Mr Taiwo Akerele, said his administration had started making huge investments in technical and vocational education to empower the youth.

    He said that the step was part of efforts to address the problem and create more jobs.

    ”We realised that with the right skills and technology, the problem of unemployment can be addressed and the Edo State Government has put in policies to create 200, 000 jobs within four years, ” Obaseki said.

    His Lagos State counterpart, Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode, said it was essential for people to acquire appropriate skills and vocational training.

    Ambode who was represented by his Deputy, Dr Idiat Adebule, said hid administration was also taking steps to achieve the objective.

    ”The Lagos State Government has been providing windows of opportunities in this regard through various vocational skills acquisition centres in parts of the state, ” he said.

    Ambode, commending organisers of the lecture, described the media as the conscience of the people.

    Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State in his keynote address said that unemployment was a socio-economic problem that led to increase in crime.

    Ikpeazu, who was represented by his Deputy, Mr Ude Oko-Chukwu, identified several factors that led to the rate of unemployment.

    He listed wrong education policy, epileptic power supply, corruption, ghost workers syndrome, neglect of agricultural sector, high importation and lack of access to capital funds as some of them.

    ”We need to discuss the issue of unemployment as a matter of urgency because it is fundamental to the progress and development of the country.

    ”There must be a reformation of the education system where practicals and skills are taught to empower people.

    ”Government has a lead role to play by creating the enabling environment and the unemployed must acquire skills to make them productive, self-reliant and employable, ” Ikpeazu said.

    A former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel urged government at all levels to employ the services of indigenous companies rather than contract foreigners to carry out projects.

    According to him, this will create jobs as well as circulate wealth in the country.

    In a goodwill message, Chief Bode George, South-West Leader, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) called for decentralisation of power so that states would manage and use their resources to develop their states.

    Mr Gabriel Akinadewo, Owner, Freedom Online Media, said it was sad that Nigeria, with all her natural endowments was faced with the looming monster – Unemployment.

    Akinadewo said there was the need to reorder the nation’s value system. (NAN).

  • ILO: Global youth unemployment rose by 13.1% in 2016

    ILO: Global youth unemployment rose by 13.1% in 2016

    Global youth unemployment last year rose by 13.1 per cent, an increase from 12.9 per cent recorded at the end of 2015, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said.

    This was contained in ILO’s latest research report titled: “World Employment and Social Outlook for Youth 2016: Trends for Youths.”

    The report  quoted ILO Deputy Director-General for Policy, Ms Deborah Greenfield, as saying that global number of unemployed youths would rise by half a million to reach 71 million in the first such increase in three years.

    According to Greenfield, “Of greater concern is the share and number of young people, often in emerging and developing countries, who live in extreme or moderate poverty in spite of having a job.

    “In fact, 156 million or 37.7 per cent of working youths are in extreme or moderate poverty as compared with 26 per cent of working adults.”

    She said the alarming rise in youth unemployment and the equally disturbing high levels of youths, who still live in poverty, show how difficult it will be to end poverty globally by 2030.

    Greenfield said in the report that there was need for countries to redouble efforts at achieving sustainable economic growth and decent work.

    She noted that the report also highlighted wide disparities between young women and men in the labour market, adding that there was need for ILO member-states and social partners to be addressed urgently.

    The disturbing research also quoted ILO Senior Economist Mr. Steven Tobin as saying that the labour force participation rate for young men stood at 53.9 per cent, compared with 37.3 per cent for young women.

    Tobin, who is the lead author of the report, said that the disparity between young men and young women represented a gap of 16.6 per cent.

    “The challenge is particularly acute in Southern Asia, Arab States and Northern Africa, where female youth participation rates are respectively, 32.9, 32.3 and 30.2 per cent lower than those of male youth in 2016,’’ Tobin said.

    He, however, said that unemployment increases were driven by the slowdown in emerging economies.

    Tobin said that global economic growth in 2016 was estimated at 3.2 per cent, 0.4 per cent lower than the figure predicted in late 2015.

    He added that this was driven by a deeper than expected recession in some key emerging commodity exporting countries and stagnating growth in some developed countries.

  • Unemployment: UNIDO canvasses more support for SMEs

    Unemployment: UNIDO canvasses more support for SMEs

    As Nigerians grapple with poverty and growing unemployment, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), has urged Federal and state governments to increase their support for entrepreneurship and industrial development by putting in place more business- friendly policies and incentives.

    The Officer in Charge, UNIDO Regional Office, Nigeria, Dr. Chuma Ezedinma, made the call during the UNIDO HP LIFE Stakeholders Workshop in Abuja.

    Participants included representatives of federal and state Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the government, private sector, non-profit organisations and the academia.

    Ezedinma noted that entrepreneurship and industrialisation were two important ingredients for tackling poverty and unemployment, adding that UNIDO would continue to support and partner the government and private sector to promote Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development (ISID) in the country.

    He said: “Entrepreneurship and industrialisation are two important ingredients for stimulating economic growth, job creation and poverty reduction in both developed economies and economies in transition including Nigeria. In fact, successful small businesses are the primary engines for job creation, income growth, and poverty reduction. Small businesses broaden the base of participation in society, create jobs, decentralise economic power, and give people a stake in the future.”

    Ezedinma said the government’s support for entrepreneurship and industrial development was crucial for economic development.

    “The government needs to encourage entrepreneurship and small businesses through its tax policy (corporate tax rate reductions, tax credits for investment and tax holidays), regulatory policy (simpler regulatory processes and reducing the cost of compliance with government regulations), access to capital (here the proposed development commercial banks can be of assistance), and the legal protection of property rights,” he said.

    The Entrepreneurship Expert and Team Leader, UNIDO HP LIFE Project, UNIDO Regional Office, Nigeria, Mr. Francis Ukoh, said the  project was in line with the government’s strategy as outlined in the National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP) to combat high youth and women unemployment and enhance the growth and competitiveness of Nigeria’s private sector.

  • Unemployment: ITF to fill youths’ skills gap

    Unemployment: ITF to fill youths’ skills gap

    About 18 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) will benefit from the National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP) of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), its Acting Director–General Dickson Chinedum, has said.

    He listed some of the beneficiaries as Sokoto, Kwara, Ogun, Katsina, Cross River, Lagos, Adamawa and Ebonyi. Others are Abia, Anambra, Borno, and Plateau.

    The ITF chief said NISDP was aimed at closing the skills’ gaps in youths which made them unemployable. This, according to him, has made it mandatory to equip the youth with skills for employment and entrepreneurship.

    Chinedum further said the NISDP, which began in 2012, would furnish the human capacity requirements of the National Enterprises Development Programme (NEDEP), a scheme put in place by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment to fast-track the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP).

    The ITF chief explained: “In the light of the result of the interim report of ITF/United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) Skills Gap Survey, management has set in motion process to commence graduate up-skilling programme for the purpose of re-skilling 3,000 graduates of engineering and technology with vocational and entrepreneurial skills in the six geo-political zones.

    “This is aside from the ongoing review of the ITF/DVT (GERMAN chamber of Crafts and Commerce) collaboration, which seeks to train apprentices in line with the German dual system. The programme matches skills development with market needs and contributes in reducing unemployment by providing competences for job creation.”

    Chinedum said ITF entered into a deal with the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) in 2009 to provide technical and vocational skills training to young Nigerians using ITF facilities and those of members of the organised private sector.

    He said to provide opportunity for evaluation and validation of skills requirement at national and state levels, ITF was collaborating with UNIDO to establish Sector Skills Councils (SSCs).

    He said 9,500 youths, translating to 500 youths per state and the FCT, aged between 18 and 35, would be trained in 38 trade and craft areas.

    He explained that this would be based on their projected value addition to citizens of the states and their potential to provide a sustainable means of livelihood for youths in their states.