Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN), a non-profit economic education focused organisation, says it is committed to reach one million Nigerian youths and young adults with improved delivery of practical education particularly entrepreneurial education in order to address Nigeria’s youth bulge and growing rate of unemployment.
Simi Nwogugu, executive director, JAN, made the pledge at a press briefing to mark the organisation’s 20th anniversary. According to her, “The organisation is dedicated to empowering young people to succeed in a global economy and has helped bridge the gap between the classroom and the workplace. Since its launch in 1999, JAN has reached over 900,000 children and young adults across the nation.
The theme for the Anniversary celebration coming up later in June is ‘20 Years of Impact, Partnering for Growth’ as it will present an opportunity to emphasise the organisation’s commitment to youth empowerment.
Nwogugu said, “After two decades, our core aim of preparing young people for the real world remains as important as ever. We are thrilled that for the past 20 years, our programs have supported our incredible youth by showing them how to generate and effectively manage wealth, create jobs for their communities and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking to the workplace. Skills that are so important in securing their financial future.”
While expressing confidence that the non-profit organisation would achieve its objective of reaching a million young adults, she called on key players in the private and public sectors to partner with JAN to achieve this.
According to her, “Every year, over 1 million would-be university students enter the workforce without tertiary education or appropriate training. The inability of many young men and women to obtain the requisite STEM skills that are in high demand has rendered them unattractive to the 21st century employer. This is why some of our programmes will focus on digital to unlock its potential for the benefit of the country. We are more committed than ever to our mission of ensuring our youth have the values, skills and confidence to secure their financial future.”
In 2018, JAN students and programmes won several awards including the first Google Impact Challenge in Nigeria, JA Africa Company of the Year Award (Best Student Company in Africa) and the FedEx Access Award which recognises the business that best demonstrates the ability to cross national boundaries and succeed as a global business.
