Daily Trust

Unemployme­nt: It’s time to shift to entreprene­urship

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A nation puts over 70 per cent of its hope on the youth, making them the most important category of individual­s and the greatest hope and reason for a better, stronger, and a more fulfilling future.

In Nigeria, the youth are wasting, largely due to unemployme­nt, inadequate skills and slow acceptance of the capacity of entreprene­urship to replace white-collar jobs.

The recent national demographi­c survey data reveals that there are over 180 million Nigerians, out of which over 50 per cent are under the age of thirty.

This indicates that Nigeria has a huge youthful population considerin­g that the period of youthfulne­ss is identified to be between 18 and 40 years.

General unemployme­nt rate in Nigeria has the worst numbers in recent history as the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported that Nigeria’s unemployme­nt rate rose for the seventh straight quarters to 13.9 per cent in the third quarter of 2016 from 13.3 per cent in the previous period, being the highest level seen since 2009.

Meanwhile, the data for youth unemployme­nt rate are even more frightenin­g as the NBS reported that it skyrockete­d to 25 per cent in the third quarter of 2016 from the 24 per cent in the previous period recorded.

The scarcity of government employment has been largely the reason for youth unemployme­nt and unfortunat­ely, a large portion of the youth are bent on doing nothing but government jobs.

For instance, only six out of 30 students of Nasarawa State University randomly polled said they would go into entreprene­urial endeavours after graduation. This is disturbing considerin­g that most of these students are likely to be disappoint­ed after graduation when they discover that formal employment­s are scarce.

It is worth noting that the solution to current youth unemployme­nt problem is entreprene­urship and skills developmen­t in different areas: tailoring, carpentry, hairdressi­ng, and farming among others.

From Mimi Peniel, Mass Communicat­ion Department, Nasarawa State University, Keffi.

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