By Zakaa Lazarus, Abuja.
The leadership of Unemployed Youth Association of Nigeria (UYAN) has tasked the federal government to adopt the strategy of equipping youths with skills and funds for self-reliance in order to stem the growing menace of youth unemployment.
The president of UYAN, Comrade Casmir Irekamba made the call in his Christmas message
In the statement, he stressed that youth unemployment is a big challenge for Nigeria and that it’s imperative to promote entrepreneurship development for the youths.
“But i think that a lot of attention is being paid by the current government in finding strategies and solutions to the growing problem of youth unemployment in the country. ‘he said
“According to statement, the figures provided by the National Bureau of Statistics, you will know that over the last three, four quarters unemployment have being growing.” he said.
He said that this means that the government alone would not be able to provide the number of jobs required to deal with the youth unemployment problem in Nigeria.
UYAN president said the federal Government must grow the private sector as a long term solution to solving the increasing unemployment in the country.
“We have a lot of skilled young Nigerians who do not have jobs and who should be engaged to contribute to the growth of the economy.
“So, government need to give them the skills to run the business of their own, hopefully when the business is grown they can employ their fellow Nigerian youths.
“So, it is about equipping them with the right entrepreneurship skills to be able to run businesses and not to be idle.
“Also, Nigeria need to move away from training our young people from looking for jobs, government must train them to create jobs.
He said that there was a need to encourage the youths to go into agriculture as it offers huge potentials for job creation.
Comrade Irekamba said that the value addition in agricultural sector is imperative as it’s an opportunity for job creation in the area of production of food and raw materials.
UYAN leadership advised the government to consider these opportunities following the government policy on food security and homegrown economy
He called on the government to explore the potentials that abounds in the country, in the area of agricultural production to create jobs for the Unemployed youths in Nigeria.
According to Comrade Irekamba, number of initiatives being introduced by the Federal Government would go a long way to ensure that Nigerian youths were gainfully employed.
He said that government must ensure that integrated and comprehensive approaches were adopted for job creation
“That is getting the right skills, promoting the private sector, also looking at the demand and supply side of employment creation.
In the season of Christmas and new year celebrations, Mr Irekamba charge the youth to be law abiding and indulge themselves in patriotic activities that will promote peace, national cohesion and progress.
