Participants at a zoom meeting organised by the Nigeria Diaspora Network (NDN), UK Chapter, have enumerated ways the youth unemployment in the country could be tackled.
The meeting, with a title: “Youth Unemployment in Nigeria,” was monitored by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Thursday night in Abuja.
Speaking, Mr. Abayomi Adebayo, founder and director, Drift Advancement Centre in Ibadan, Oyo State, urged the private investors to collaborate with education providers to help the youths develop the skills that could make them to be self-reliant.
He also called on them to support the government initiatives on reducing the rate of unemployment among the youths.
“I will urge the NGOs to foster entrepreneurship by supporting start-ups and smaller enterprises, while private investors should connect talent to markets by closing the gap between jobseekers and employers,” he said.
Adebayo, who urged the private sector operators to support the government initiatives on reducing the rate of unemployment among the youths, said an enabling environment should also be provided by government for businesses to grow.
“Research should be carried out on the best method to help mitigate this problem in our country as it is in the developed countries and this should be aligned with the government programmes on youth empowerment scheme.
Adebayo, who noted that private sector is the driving force of solution to unemployment issues, said: “This is the phenomenon by which the private investors can help transform the Nigerian economy.”
Mr. Ahmadu Bello, a political analyst, said though the increasing rate of youth unemployment in the country is worrisome, the problem can be tackled if all hands are on deck.
He advised that the school curriculum should be overhauled to ensure that emphasis are placed on vocational and technical job trainings so that school leavers and graduates can be self-reliant.
Bello, who urged the Federal Government to ensre more funding and monitoring of entrepreneurship youth programmes, said corrupt public officials should be seriously sanctioned to serve as deterrent to others.
”Finally, the Nigerian elite and those in the Diaspora should participate in building public wealth in Nigeria rather than building individual wealth for that will go a long way in reducing youth unemployment,” he said.
NAN reports that the NDN is a group of Nigerian professionals in Diaspora, working tirelessly towards a transformed Nigeria by advocating for good governance with the aim of sharing opinions to tackle pressing social, economic, democratic and cultural issues in Nigeria. (NAN)
