The Nation Newspaper

Tag: youth unemployment

  • ‘Tackling youth unemployment key to improving our economy’

    ‘Tackling youth unemployment key to improving our economy’

    Lagos State is set to undertake new investments to boost youth employment. In this interview with Daniel Essiet, Commissioner for Wealth Creation and Employment, Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti, gives an insight into government’s programmes aimed at reducing unemployment.

    How is Lagos tackling  youth unemployment?

    As you are aware, rapid urbanisation comes with its attendant problem of high youth unemployment. This is expected, Lagos being the commercial and economic nerve centre of Nigeria.  While the Lagos boasts of high potential for growth of small businesses, it battles the negative effect of development which is high youth unemployment.

    Bearing this in mind, Governor Akinwumi Ambode on assumption of office, decided to set up the Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment, first of its kind in the entire federation that will address these issues.

    He reasoned that if the state is to grow small businesses, it must create an enabling environment for them to operate, with access to finance and market . When they grow, they will be able to employ more people.

    On the other hand, a lot of youths have problems of employability skills. We have lots of unemployed graduates.

    The question is, are they unemployed because there are not jobs? We need to look at the causes of under employment, to find out whether  the situation is structural, or are there jobs the people cannot fill?

    What strategy have you adopted to address the problem?

    Lots of government programmes have been created in the past to address this challenge. Right from Operation Feed the Nation (OFN), National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), these were all run by the government.

    Taking a realistic view, we believe that government does not create jobs. Only the private sector can create jobs.

    Consequently, we decided that the best strategy was to put in place an initiative to enable small businesses.

    How did we do this?

    The state government decided to set up the Employment Trust Fund.  The government allocated N6.25 billion every year to small and micro businesses as small loans. The loans range from N250, 000 to N5milion. The fund is easy to access but at the same time, there are eligibility criteria.

    In the past, such funds were run by government. In this case, we are dealing with tax payers. In line with Governor Ambode policy of inclusion, the government decided that all the stakeholders affected in the ecosystem, the young entrepreneurs, the civil society organisations, gender groups, young people should be part of the machinery that will set the criteria and methodologies on how to  run the fund to get to the right people. Today, the fund is managed by nine people, out of them, only two of them are government officials, my self and the Commissioner for Finance.

    The trust fund is being run independently by this group of eminent citizens of Lagos and Nigeria. That is why the programme is a success.

    How about employability challenges?

    We examined three layers of those that are unemployed.  In our study of the factors that have led to low employability skills, we discovered  that there are jobs that our youths lack the orientation to contest for them.

    From my experience, some of the youths don’t know where the jobs are. Then, there is the issue of  cognitive skills’ building institutions.

    The challenge is that the youths are not exploring those institutions that can help them build their cognitive skills. We are talking about groups and social institutions, such a Boys Scout, Girls Guild, Red Cross andDebating societies.

    All these groups are vital in building employability skills. These days ,we don’t have active extra curriculum activities in schools. These  activities go a long way in helpling youths to build  employability skills.

    We discovered also among youths that the spirit of volunteerism is no longer there. When you volunteer, you are learning something.

    A young graduate lawyer will leave school with the mindset of getting a job with an established law firm. With the situation in the economy, he might stay home for three years without getting his dream job.

    Rather than stay home without a job, it will pay him to volunteer with a legal firm. If he continues to stay home, he will become rusty.

    If he decides to volunteer with a legal firm, he will not only learn something, he will be considered when there is a vacancy within the firm. He may not earn a salary, but he gains experience.

    We are trying to reorient our youths about volunteerism, to go out and volunteer if they want to get jobs.

     What about school leavers?

    We also have school leavers who couldn’t advance because of family financial difficulties.

    How do we address it?

    There are two things we are trying to achieve through the school system. While in school, we want the system to produce students who can be employed or can become entrepreneurs.

    They can come out to work for people or set up their businesses. We are going back to schools to   campaign to inculcate entrepreneurship skills in students.

    That is why we are working with Lagos State Technical and Vocational Education Board (LASTVEB) to create youth entrepreneurs clubs in technical and vocational colleges in the state.

    How do they get  the jobs they are trained for ?

    That is why we are reaching out to private organisations that  know the industry skills’ needs. We have reached out to companies such as General Electric, Sterling Bank and quite a number of others.

    We sat down with them and say, let us work together and solve the problem because it affects all of us.The responses have been good and gradual. Of course we are expecting more. The important thing is that we are involving the private sector.

    The private sector knows the kind of skills they need.

    We have also reached out to international development partners ,such as Ford Foundation, Mercy Corps and the United Nations Development Programme(UNDP). We work with them on our problems. We know our problems. We seek for areas of synergy.

    What about the informal sector?

    At  the informal sector, we have artisans and trade associations. We have welders, mechanics, painters and others. All these are jobs. They are part of small businesses.They can also access the ETF and grow their businesses.

    We keep saying that Togolese and artisans from neighbouring countries are stealing our jobs. Do we know our artisans are now doing better. To address this, we have  created a compendium of registered artisans and tradesmen. The compendium provides details on 20,000 registered  artisans.

    Every artisan on the compendium has a unique identification number, and an identity card. Apart from these, the artisan will be given a unique ATM card that is linked with Ibile Micro Finance Bank for loans. The other benefits is access to the state’s health insurance scheme.Those on compendium will be listed on the market place  where they can advertise their businesses.

  • Entrepreneurship, Key to ending Youth Unemployment in Nigeria- YPNI

    Entrepreneurship, Key to ending Youth Unemployment in Nigeria- YPNI

    A non-profit group, the Young Progressive Nigerians Initiative (YPNI) has described vocational skills and entrepreneurship as one of the major solutions to unemployment and poverty in Nigeria

    Speaking with news men after the annual general meeting recently held in Lagos, the group Convener, Adekunle Osibogun said the organization, which recently trained over 500 youths in Ogun State on various vocational skills, is focused on promoting entrepreneurship and patriotism among young Nigerians.

    The organization with members drawn from professions such as journalism, banking, law, information technology and medicine also deliberated on several national quagmires confronting the nation such as restructuring and national unity, unemployment and entrepreneurship, insecurity and youths’ participation in governance. They posited a need to evaluate the current political and economic structures to determine whether Nigerians should adopt a federal or unitary system of government, since the current hybrid system appears to be failing, with apparent signs of increased poverty, disunity, under-development, and insecurity.

    “We call on the National Assembly and the 36 State Houses of Assembly to incorporate in the current constitutional amendment process, the transfer of items 8 (census), 28 (Fingerprint identification and criminal records), 34 (labour), 39 (Mines and Minerals Resources), 45 (police and other government security agencies established by law), 46 (posts, telegraphs and telephones), 48 (prisons), 54 (quarantine), 59 (taxation of incomes, profits and capital gains), 62 (trade and commerce) of the 2nd Schedule (legislative powers) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) from the Exclusive Legislative list to the Concurrent Legislative list,” the group said.

    Speaking more on the Federal structure of Nigeria, Osibogun said: “Today, the unity of our nation is fragile, with youths from different corridors of our nation voicing their disbelief in a future with a united Nigeria. It therefore behooves on our leaders to convince our youths that we are better together than apart, because our generation is one that will only be swayed by sound arguments and not sentimental dictates. We believe an ideal starting point should be an evaluation of our malfunctioning political and economic structures which have continued to breed disunity and under-development in our country.”

    YPNI also called for the transfer of sections 16, 17 and 18 of the Constitution (as amended) from Chapter 2 (Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy) to Chapter 4 (Fundamental Human Rights), in order to empower the citizenry with the right to demand for certain agreed basic parameters in the economic, social and educational sectors from any government entrusted with these responsibilities.
    On the issue of insecurity, all members of YPNI unanimously called on the federal government to look into the increase of terrorist activities by insurgency groups, especially in north-eastern states, and the frequent clashes between herdsmen and farmers in the north-central and southern states, which has become a threat to food security in the country.

    The group stated the need for reforms in the policing structure of the country to create a more professional and independent police force. One that allows states within the federation share the responsibility of policing and securing their territories within the federal government.
    Osibogun said “it is important to create an independent body that is empowered to investigate and discipline erring police officers, because this will improve confidence in the police force and promote professionalism amongst the officers.”

    Charging all youths from 18 and above to register to vote and actively participate in the political process, the group head of planning, Mammud Yusuf said that it is time for our young men and women embedded with skills and managerial acumen to take over the baton of leadership from those who have been saddled with governance in Nigeria since the first republic.

    “Governance in 21st century should be saddled with those that understand the language of the 21st century. Governance needs characters embedded with a lot of energy, zeal, strength, exposure, education, innovation, creativity and purpose which could only be found with people rooted and grounded with the realities of 21st century.”

    “Therefore, we believe that it is time for the youths of Nigeria to wake up from their slumber and take over the affairs of the country from our fathers that have been recycling powers within themselves since the first republic. “We call on young Nigerians to participate in politics, register to vote and be voted for and also stand for elections. France just elected Emmanuel Macron aged 39, Emil Dimitrev who is the Prime Minister of Macedonia is 39 years, Emir of Qatar, Tamim Ah Tani is 37 years, President of San Marino, VanesaD’Ambrisio, 29 years, Saleh Al-sammad was recently elected President of Yemen at age of 38 years, therefore, why are Nigerian Youths missing in governance?” he said.

    Reinstating the position of the group on panacea to unemployment in Nigeria, Osibogun opined that instead of competing for limited white-collar jobs available in the country, youths should embrace entrepreneurship and vocational skills as an alternative medium to make a living, stressing that our current political and economic structure will not permit any government to provide adequate jobs for the citizenry.

    “While we implore governments at all tiers to tame the surge of unemployment and joblessness in the country; as an organization that believes in entrepreneurship and skills acquisition, we call on our peers to learn a skill today as a medium of making a living instead of looking for white collar jobs that are not available.”

    YPNI also announced that the second batch of training on entrepreneurship for unemployed youths shall commence in the second week of October. The training, according to the communication manager of the group, Mr. Maxwell Adeyemi Adeleye, will offer our youths access to acquisition of various skills such as beads and craft making, events planning and decoration, fashion design, catering services and shoe making.

  • Youth unemployment, a time bomb

    Studies have shown that about 80 per cent of the youth are unemployed. Worried about the dangers this development portends to the country, stakeholders said there is urgent need by both the public and private sectors of the economy to address the problem for sustainable development of the country, TOBA AGBOOLA writes.

     

    The increase in youthful population has been described by analysts as a time bomb waiting to be detonated. This is because the increase is not being matched with the provision of employment opportunities.

    Nigeria is said to have the largest number of unemployed youth in sub-Saharan Africa.

    They argue that the inherent strength of a youthful population, could be drawn upon by the government and the private sector for sustainable national development.

    Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria(CIPM), Mr. Sunday Adeyemi, said, youths are the major economic drivers in any society, adding  that the employed or empowered youth is capable of driving the country’s economy in the right direction.

    Adeyemi said considering that the greater proportion of vices that face the nation seem traceable to youth and their activities, it was only reasonable for engaging them in constructive initiatives in order to keep youth busy and productive at the same time.

    He lamented however that the atmosphere that will get the youth engaged for productive activities has not been created.

    According to him, there is a clear evidence that promoting entrepreneurship consciously among youth could be an effective way of tackling unemployment within this class.

    He said this conclusion is drawn from the analysis of the data collected from a stratified sample of loan beneficiaries of the small scale industries (SMEs) and graduate employment programme in the country, adding that apart from entrepreneurship, other initiatives like vocational training could come to the rescue.

    Insisting that youth unemployment has maligned families and debased educational system, a labour activist and President of Progressive Leadership Organisation International (PLOI), Mr. Emmanuel Ezueme, said many parents are frustrated and traumatised seeing their sons and daughters turn to crimes such as advanced fee fraud, prostitution and others because of they are not able to get a space to eke a living, even after graduating from the university.

    He said even children are now discouraged from being serious with their studies because the serious ones that left school have remained jobless, several years after leaving school. According to Ezueme, the country’s youthful population should be a formidable advantage to the economy if well harnessed.

    He said:“In addition to constituting a dynamic workforce to produce goods and services for the nation, they should also make-up the entrepreneurial class to drive the economy,” adding that the youth should be encouraged by creating the right environment to enable them turn their imagination into creation of new products and improvement of existing ones.

    A youth leader and former President of Children’s Parliament, Mr. Ibrahim Abdullahi, said the Federal Government is not doing enough to address the problem of youth unemployment in the country, adding that the country’s youth needed to embark on a nation wide campaign to ensure that jobs are created.

    ”There is no system in Nigeria that empowers young people to be easily employed by companies or even to be self-employed. Though governments at all levels are trying to introduce vocational trainings, I think it has not been well-prioritised,” Abdullahi said.

    He said both the government and the private sector should make sure that tackling youth unemployment remains on top of their agenda, because the issue of unemployment is a serious one and many youths have lost their lives in trying to get work in other countries.

    He said youth unemployment is a major challenge to the peace and security of the nation, adding that efforts should be made to create jobs.

    “It is the root cause of poverty, youth restiveness, gangsterism, bank robbery, kidnapping, assassination, lawlessness and all sorts of deviant behaviour,” he said.

    He  added that tertiary institutions dump over 300,000 graduates into the job market every year thereby exacerbating the situation.

  • Tackling youth unemployment will lead to economic development

    With more than 80 per cent of Nigeria’s youth unemployed, stakeholders said tackling the problem by government and its partners would effectively place the country on the path of growth and sustainable development, TOBA AGBOOLA writes.

     

    The increase in youthful population has been described by analysts as a time bomb waiting to be detonated, considering that the country has the largest army of unemployed youths in Africa.

    They said  the inherent strength of a youthful population, coupled with the very large numbers of the Nigerian youth can be drawn upon by the government and the private sector for sustainable national development.

    Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria(CIPM), Mr. Sunday Adeyemi, said, youths are the major economic drivers in any society, adding  that the employed or empowered Nigerian youth is capable of driving the country’s economy in the right direction.

    Adeyemi said considering that greater proportion of vices that ails the nation seem traceable to youths and their activities, it was only reasonable for engaging and constructive initiatives to be regularly introduced, in order to keep youths busy and productive at the same time.

    According to him, such situation where the nation’s youths can be kept busy and productive has not been achieved, in spite of numerous initiatives by the government and some private sector players to address the issue.

    He said there is clear evidence that promoting entrepreneurship consciously among youths can be an effective way of tackling unemployment within this group.

    He said this conclusion is drawn from the analysis of survey data collected from a stratified sample of loan beneficiaries of the small scale industries and graduate employment programme in Nigeria, adding that apart from entrepreneurship, other initiatives like vocational training can come to the rescue.

    Insisting that youth unemployment in Nigeria has maligned families and debased educational system, Labour Activist and President of Progressive Leadership Organisational International (PLOI), Mr. Emmanuel Ezueme, said many parents are frustrated and traumatised at seeing their sons and daughters turn to crime and prostitution because of unemployment.

    He said even younger children are now discouraged from being serious with their studies because their seniors who have been to school are jobless, frustrated and roaming all over the place. According to Ezueme, Nigeria’s youthful population should be a formidable advantage to the economy if well harnessed.

    “In addition to constituting a dynamic workforce to produce goods and services for the nation, they should also make-up the entrepreneurial class to drive the economy”, adding youths should be encouraged by creating the right environment to enable them turn their imagination into creation of new products and improvement of existing ones.

    Recently, Youth Leader and Former President of Children’s Parliament, Mr. Ibrahim Abdullahi, accused  the Federal Government of not doing enough to address the problem of youth unemployment in the country, adding that the country’s youth, need to embark on a big campaign to ensure that jobs are created.

    ”There is no system in Nigeria that empowers young people to be easily employed by companies or even to be self-employed. Though governments at all levels are trying to introduce vocational trainings, I think it has not been well-prioritised”, Abdullahi said.

    He said government and the private sector should make sure that tackling youth unemployment remains on top of their agenda, because the issue of unemployment is a serious one and many youths have lost their lives in trying to get work in other countries.

    He said with the exceptions of electricity and Infrastructure, youth’s unemployment is the third biggest problem confronting Nigeria today.

    “It is the root cause of poverty, youth restiveness, gangsterism, bank robbery, kidnapping, assassination, lawlessness and all sorts of deviant behaviour”, he said.

    He  added that tertiary institutions dump over 300,000 graduates into the job market every year thereby exacerbating the situation.

  • Conference on youth unemployment coming

    The International Federation of Training and Development Organisations (IFTDO) will hold a conference at the Abuja Sheraton Hotel and Towers from November 18 to 19.

    Chairman of the Conference Planning Committee, Rev. Tunde Salawu, disclosed this at a briefing in Lagos.

    He said the confab, which is sequel to the one held a decade ago, would address youth unemployment and proffer solution to it.

    The theme of the conference is, “Skills acquisition as panacea to youth unemployment in Africa”.

    Salawu said the effects of youth unemployment were multi-dimensional and required the commitment of stakeholders if the continent must make progress in its quest for development and global relevance.

    He added that the confab sessions have been selected and would include the economic and social impact of youth unemployment in Africa, strategies for embedding entrepreneurship into the education curriculum and public-private partnership options for addressing skills development and employment crisis in Africa, among others.

    Also, resource persons from other countries would share their experiences at the event.

    The conference will be co-hosted by the Nigerian Institute for Training and Development (NITAD), the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), the Lagos State Public Service Staff Development Centre (PSSDC) and their partners, including Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC), Centre for Management Development (CMD), Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) and the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPMN).

  • Fed Govt frowns at youth unemployment

    The Federal Government has described as unacceptable the figures from the National Bureau of Statistics indicating that 1.8 million youths end up in the labour market yearly.

    The government’s displeasure over this figure was expressed by the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala yesterday in Abuja at an interactive session with Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of companies in Nigeria.

    She also decried recent figures, which suggested that the unemployment rate in the country has risen to about 23.9 per cent.

    To address this crisis, the government, she said, introduced the Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) under which “so far 1,937 firms have registered for the scheme out of which 1,371 were verified and only 293 were approved.” She said 1,078 were rejected for their inability to meet government’s minimum requirements.