About 40 million Nigerians translating to 23.9 per cent are unemployed, Chairman, Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P) Dr Christopher Kolade has said.

He spoke yesterday in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital at a sensitisation forum for firms in the state.

Quoting the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), he added that one of the challenges of graduate unemployment is the “inability of the system to absorb the about 300,000 graduates churned out of our tertiary institutions.”

Kolade, who was represented at the forum by the Assistant Director and Head of Services, SURE-P, Anthony Kalu, said:“Firms readily blame lack of experience, high cost of maintaining a large work force and the need to maintain profit above the red line as the reason for not employing the graduates. GIS provides a way out of this dilemma by developing a skill base that firms can benefit from among our graduates at very minimal cost.

He added that the Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) of the programme aims to employ at about 50,000 unemployed graduates in 36 states and FCT in one year.

He said the scheme is targeted at improving the skills unemployed graduates through work placement in registered firms.

The chairman SURE-P, who lamented that only 35 per cent of 2,000 registered firms had met minimum requirement for participation, said over 96,000 unemployed graduates have registered on the GIS portal.

The SURE-P chief, therefore, described the forum as a call to action for the participating firms, urging them to partner with the Federal Government and contribute their quota to addressing graduate unemployment.

“In Kwara State, 46 organisations have registered and five have been approved to take interns. Also, out of the 3,290 graduates that have registered in the state, 21 have been matched to firms and only three have been hired.

“Clearly, there is an urgent need for more firms to participate in this programme and take graduates out of the labour market,” he said.

Kolade said graduates will be placed in profit, non-profit organisations and selected government agencies on a one year internship, adding that the interns are expected to acquire professional skills, training and work experience to improve their job placement opportunities.

He said the Federal Government will pay a monthly stipend of N25,000 to the interns while participating institutions will be expected to provide adequate opportunities for work and mentoring, including personal accident insurance.

“Government is concerned about high unemployment rate and is doing everything possible to reverse it. It recognises the fact that stakeholders- Federal Government, state governments, local governments, organised private sector, development organisations, and religious organisations must also resolve to reverse this trend for it to change,” he said.
http://thenationonlineng.net/new/40-million-nigerians-jobless-says-kolade/

Unemployment? How long will a man board this vehicle of pessimism to catapult to life of optimism. Perennial Joblessness is a mental state and not a state of the economy because our economy is still raw. Its very easy for graduates who are mentally lazy to justify joblessness under the present economic fiasco and social macabre. In as much as the government has a pivotal role to play in job creation and enabling environment for enterprenuership to thrive, one must not hide under the rascality of politicans and government ineptitude to allow his/her future morgaged except his CERTIFICATED and not EDUCATED because hunger and disease never visit any man based on his years in school but the intelletual resources and financial power to tame them.

I hope he did not omit FFK's name other wise a recount is needed

Who ever told Christopher Kolade dat 40miilion people are unemployed in Nigeria? A country dat those graduates that even work for the likes of the chinese earn less than 25k a month equivalent of $140 a month. A Country where graduates do menial Jobs like Okada to get by daily. How does all these translate to gainfull employment to garantee a real future?

From my own calculations over 80million people are unemployed or work in a place with no future in Nigeria.

[s]"About 40 million Nigerians translating to 23.9 per cent are unemployed..."[/s]

over 40 million Nigerians translating to more than 23.9 per cent are unemployed...

What happened to the SURE (subsidy re-investment empowerment programme)? Are you sure that jonathan is capable of leading this country for the second time??

There are jobs everywhere. It's just that the kind of jobs that are available are looked down upon and the pay is usually not good enough, so people shun such jobs to remain jobless. Between having a menial job and being jobless, which one do you prefer?

D guy shld shut up jor. My job is out there,d only tin delaying me is ASUU.

Na 2day una sabi
Jobless no be news again o
Wake up!!!

130 million have phones, 40 million are jobless.. hmmm.. ok

Too Sad for the future
...FRONT PAGE. Lolz

Fashola should repatriate "them" to their territory and he should do them a favor by giving them a hoe and a cutlass !

i am waiting for ROSSIKE to dispute this figures - that boy puts the D in delusion!

even politicians are jobless so what's d bigie?

Mr. Kolade, u just repeat wetin I don talk since 19...

Na new thing

These jobless niggas are on twitter.

Y can't africans mostly nigerians make a living from manufacturing instead of service.fg mustn't do everything for the common man.

That's true, I am supposed to be one of the unemployed, but I ve decided to be my boss n employ about 0.00001 of d population by 2015.

Afam4eva: There are jobs everywhere. It's just that the kind of jobs that are available are looked down upon and the pay is usually not good enough, so people shun such jobs to remain jobless. Between having a menial job and being jobles
s, which one do you prefer?

Very true bt Menial jobs dnt pay ur bills in Nigeria they only provide u food say 2 times a day.The problem still lies wit Foreign investments and Electricity.If the Electricity problem is improved or fixed many pple will find themselves sometin to do.Those Chinese and indian firms use our graduates and pay dem change,Money that cannot pay ur bills.Our leaders loot d money stolen from public office and dumb dem overseas,if they use it to establish factories they wld employ thousands of graduates and take dem off the streets.
Bt becoz the source of the money will be questioned they prefer to take it overseas.

Most of em jobless people are self made.

Lordave: Most of em jobless people are self made.

how's it self-made?
if the government of a country can't provide employment then there should be a welfare package. the politicians don't just care about nigerian citizens....

nadia_SA: God help Nigeria

Pray for your South Africa not Nigeria

luvable sam:

Pray for your South Africa not Nigeria

We both know who needs more prayers..

nadia_SA:
We both know who needs more prayers..

Your Xenophobic south needs not just prayers buh divine intervention. So please.,.....

nadia_SA:
We both know who needs more prayers..

lols. Cute reply

nadia_SA:
We both know who needs more prayers..

The federal government should provide more regular electricity. The electricity would creates millions of job to the people.