40 million Nigerian youths unemployed - FG - Plans summit on youth unemployment - 80% Nigerian graduates unemployable - Education Minister
Soji-Eze Fagbemi and Clement Idoko, Abuja - 25.02.2009

THE Federal Government on Tuesday stated that about 40 million Nigerian youths were currently unemployed. The figure, according to the Labour Minister, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode, was presented to the government by the World Bank on Monday.


In a swift reaction to the development, however, the Federal Government on Tuesday inaugurated a planning committee on National Employment Summit to halt unemployment among Nigerians.


Prince Kayode inaugurated the committee on behalf of President Umaru Yar’Adua at the Ministry of Labour, Federal Secretariat, Abuja. The minister said the alarming figure of 40 million unemployed youths given by the World Bank was not even captured in the unemployment index.


“The figure World Bank gave was that we have about 40 million [unemployed] youths between 18 and 25 years. The figure is not even captured by unemployment index because they are not looking for jobs as the jobs are not there. However, we are doing whatever we can do to attack and address this huge problem,” he said.


Inaugurating the 21-member committee, Prince Kayode said the problems of unemployment and underemployment had constituted impediments to the country’s strive for national growth and development.


He regretted that despite efforts by previous administrations and different strategies to combat the problems, socio-economic indicators continued to show that the number of men and women joining the ranks of the unemployed, working poor and those in the vulnerable groups was perpetually on the increase.


The minister said: “Unemployment has assumed a different and worrisome dimension in view of the effects of the current global financial and economic crisis on the people, especially in terms of job losses and the creation of new ones for the ever-growing populace.


“Nigeria, no doubt, is not an exception and, indeed, has been classified by the World Bank Report on “The Global Economic Crisis: Assessing Vulnerability with a Poverty Lens’ as a nation with exposure to poverty,” the minister said.


Prince Kayode said in recognition of these concerns and many others and their implications for national peace, growth and development, the need to urgently convene a national summit to address the problems had become compelling.


The minister said the Ministry of Labour, which is saddled with the responsibility for promoting and coordinating employment creation efforts in Nigeria, had decided to drive the process of convening a national employment summit that would address and develop practical strategies to meet the employment challenges of the global financial and economic crisis.


The committee, which will be chaired by the minister, has as members, all stakeholders in the labour and employment generation sector and all Federal Government agencies in the area of job creation and poverty alleviation.


The terms of reference of the committee are: To discuss and approve the working brief submitted by the technical working group with regard to the concept, contents, scope and modalities of the summit; to develop strategies for the effective mobilisation of funds through ownership and sponsorship of the various components of the summit by stakeholders; to discuss modalities for post-summit activities that will ensure proper implementation of recommendations and strategies for the creation of jobs at sectoral levels; and to discuss other matters relevant to the success of the employment summit.


He said that the summit would not be a jamboree as it was targeted to solve the problems of unemployment in the country, adding that with the calibre of eminent persons and experts in the committee, the National Employment Summit would be a success.

The Federal Govern-ment on Tuesday lamented the declining standard of university education in Nigeria, saying that about 80 percent of the country’s university graduates are unemployable.


Education Minister, Dr. Sam Egwu who said this while speaking at the retreat held for newly reconstituted Governing Council Boards for Federal Universities in Abuja, attributed this ugly trend to poor teaching in the system.


He, however, regretted the problem of access to university education, saying that less than 10 percent of Nigerians who take the matriculation examination annually are being offered admission into universities, a number said to be less than the minimum international standard of 16 percent.


This according to him, is as a as a result of the low carrying capacity of tertiary institutions which stands at less than 200,000 for the Nigerian university system as against an annual demand of one million. “The problem of access to tertiary institutions is further compounded by inadequate and obsolete infrastructure and equipment as well as poor library facilities,” he added.


On the low quality of graduates and the cause, Dr. Egwu said about 15 -30 percent of the instructional and infrastructural facilities are non-functional, obsolete or dilapidated. These have adverse consequences on the quality of teaching, learning and research,” saying the quality of graduates of tertiary institutions is also a cause for concern. Only 20% of graduates from Nigerian universities are employable.”

http://www.tribune.com.ng/25022009/news/news3.html

In a swift reaction to the development, however, the Federal Government on Tuesday inaugurated a planning committee on National Employment Summit to halt unemployment among Nigerians.

Someone is about to get paid.

Abi!! It seems in Nigeria, SUMMITS are in vogue. Na wa ooo!

Is there anywhere i can get a statistic of the population break down in Nigeria, i will like to know how many youth we have in Nigeria that 40Million would be unemployed.
I guess now we are getting to the bottom of the problem that Nigeria is facing, if 40M youth (future of a nation) is unemployed, in a nation where there is no social welfare, unemployment grant or anything, and let us assume that some of them have education, some have old folks at home that will depend on this youth that has no job to feed them, so how have they been able to take care of themselves?
I guess Nigeria has a lot to do and it is time for them to look into the future of the nation.

And we wonder why yahoo yahoo is the 'in thing' in nigeria.

Another useless committee formation. Nigeria is doomed

I didn't even realize that there were so many people in Nigeria,