…From Dele Ogunyemi, Ibadan…
Worried by the unprecedented high rate of youth unemployment in the country, the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan, rose from its monthly seminar series on Tuesday calling on the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, carry out a comprehensive audit of job creation agencies across the Federation just as it canvassed for value and attitudinal re-orientation of job applicants, as short-term options to address job creation in Nigeria.
Participants at the seminar also re-echoed the need for the authorities to ensure, without further delay, that the environment is conducive with desirable infrastructure in place.
A senior researcher at the Economic Policy Research Department of the Institute, Dr. Foluso Adeyinka had earlier presented a paper at the seminar entitled “Job Creation in Nigeria: Short and Long Term Options” during which she submitted that there cannot be a smooth transformation from an agrarian economy to an industrial one that will make more jobs available without reliable and affordable infrastructure especially power.
While insisting that the creation of employment opportunities in Nigeria had become imperative to achieve poverty reduction and sustainable economic and social development in the nation, she advocated long term options that spanned refocusing of school curriculum from secondary school level; establishment of creativity centres; linkage between training institute and industry and a scale-up in funds for job creation activities.
She said: “The challenges facing job creation in Nigeria vary considerably. These challenges include inadequacy of funds; low demand for output/services; inappropriate technology, inadequate infrastructural support and high cost of inputs. Other challenges are the attitude of applicants, the role of politics and a lack of proper coordination and synergy among agencies in implementing job creation programmes. The need for skill development and acquisition in preparation for livelong earnings and the necessity to begin to explore self employment came up as the cogent suggestions given for ensuring a demand and supply in job creation.”
In canvassing an urgent intervention from the authorities, Dr. Adeyinka attributed most of the insurgencies in Nigeria to the employment challenge.
The Director-General of NISER, Professor Olufemi Taiwo had earlier noted with concern that the high rate of unemployment in Nigeria stem from the undue over dependence on imports to the detriment of locally-made products.
He also remarked that a total figure of 18.9 million people are unemployed in Nigeria as 12.6 million youths are not gainfully employed while a total of 5.2 million people are not working at all.