Feyisayo Alayande, the executive secretary of the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF), has said the government and LSETF are unyielding in curbing unemployment in Lagos State.
Its strategy includes empowering youths and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) through financial literacy, employability skills, and funding, to foster financial independence.
This was revealed during an interview with BusinessDay addressing how LSETF, a Lagos agency for unemployment and MSMEs funding, tackles unemployment and informal employment in Lagos state.
The headline unemployment rate in the annual Labour Force Survey report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) was 5.4 per cent in 2023 and 5.39 in Q1’2024.
Lagos state recorded 5.5 per cent unemployment rate with 365,189 unemployed population and 4.63 million informal employed population, highest out of 77.56 million individuals engaged in informal employment, excluding agriculture.
According to the International Labour Organisation, informal employment refers to working arrangements that are in practice or by law but not subject to national labour legislation, income taxation or social protection, especially among private-owned digital platform workers.
“Lagos and Borno states recorded the highest proportion of employees working in the private sector, while Zamfara and Jigawa states recorded the highest proportion of employees working in the public sector,” NBS said.
However, the executive highlighted that the Fund tackles unemployment by equipping its residents with the knowledge of legal structures for employment, creating access to finance through loans and grants and ensuring youths gain access to skills acquisition programs for hands-on experience.
“One of the major issues business owners face is capital funding and sustainability. The Lagos agency priortises financial independence by giving out loans and grants between N50,000 to N5 million to eligible and registered business owners,” she said.
Alayande affirmed that the agency also hosts business support programs that give MSMEs access to capital and empower them on financial literacy along with information technology training and mentorship programs that incubates start-ups.
Responding to the question on partnership, the LSETF’s annual event in July centred on job creation: uniting for impact. It highlighted how Governor Babajide Sanwo-olu emphasised the importance of collaboration with other organisations to solve employment problems.
“Between 2016 and 2024, LSETF has created over 220,000 direct and indirect jobs, saved 204,000 jobs, and impacted up to 500,000 jobs in Lagos state which represents 85,000 MSMEs. The Fund has also trained over 20,000 young residents in Lagos state with the support from our partners,” Alayande said.
She added that the Fund has also partnered with 26 Local Government Council Development Areas (LCDA) in Lagos state ensuring that people have seamless access to the services of LSETF and gain insights into the business funding.
“Recently, we signed an MoU with the United States African Development Foundation (USADF) to train 10,000 young people in Lagos state to succeed in the job market and sustain the job in the long term,” Alayande emphasised.
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