National Telescope national telescope newspaper
…Calls for better Empowerment Scheme for Youths
Daniel Ayantoye | Ibadan
The National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), has condemned the spate of unemployment in the country, saying the menace has worsened leading to increase in drug abuse and other social vices.
According to Statista data, “In 2022, the unemployment rate in Nigeria is estimated to reach 33 percent. This figure was projected to at 32.5 percent in the preceding year.
Chronological data show that the unemployment rate in Nigeria rose constantly in the past years. In the fourth quarter of 2020, over 33 percent of the labor force was unemployed, according to the Nigerian methodology.”
Speaking with NATIONAL TELESCOPE at the NYCN 2022 Leadership Retreat held at the Secretariat in Ibadan, the Chairman, NYCN Oyo State,
Comr. Abdulsalam Quadri stressed that the lingering issue of unemployment in the country requires urgent attention.
He also called on Government to equip trainees with required tools after their training to allow them practice whatsoever learnt.
“Presently you will discover we have more youth into drugs, number of unemployed and out-of-school children is increasing everyday.
“We are using this medium to call the attention of the State Government and the President of the Country to please pay more attention to employment opportunity to reduce the unemployment of youths which is exposing the youths to all this indecent acts.”
“The government should also look into the educational sector to give youths more access to education so that more youth will go back to school and will reduce the out-of-school students. All this will help to control the indecencies in our youths.
The NYCN Chairman noted that “It’s not necessary that government focus on formal education alone. Informal education is also an avenue for the government to reduce the level of unemployment in the country for example the government can empower more youth on agriculture and the empowerment we are talking about is not the one the government is doing presently whereby they will train people and the people trained will not be empowered.
“What we want is training and empowerment immediately because what is the essence of training people and after two, three years they are not been empowered. It is just a waste of money and the resources of the State. So we want to use this medium to urge our government that after training the youth, they should empower the youth immediately so that they can practice what they are trained for.”
Meanwhile, the Special Assistant to Governor ‘Seyi Makinde of Oyo State on Youths and Sports, Amb Kazeem Bolarinwa has reiterated the State Governments commitment to reducing the unemployment rate in the State.
Bolarinwa told NATIONAL TELESCOPE, that the Oyo State Government through its various youth inclusive programs has done alot in alleviating restiveness amongst youth in the State.
He said, “The State Government has done a lot to engage the youth productively, a lot of policies have been enacted and a lot of exercises have been put in place such as the yeep program that was recently concluded that took over 3000 youth to Nasarawa for training in agriculture and that is just one out of numerous.
“The government also came up with different employment opportunities such as the waste management that employed over 4000 youth few months ago. The government also came up with a billion naira SME scheme to support small and medium business”. He added.
Earlier, the Head of Department, Entrepreneurship, Nigeria Directorate of Employment, Oyo State, Mrs. Steve Ogubdipe while delivering her lecture admonished youth to take advantage of the various skill acquisition programs made available by the federal government through the NDE.
Meanwhile, the Special Assistant to the Oyo State Governor on Inter-Faith, Rev. Femi Ibikunle while speaking on leadership stated that service and taking responsibility are required to become a good leader.
