With Nigeria’s unemployment rate as at second quarter of 2020, put at 27.1 percent, and about 13.9 million of the country’s youth population said to be unemployed, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) has again stressed the need to encourage skills acquisition to address the unemployment situation.
Taiwo Adeniyi, president of NECA, speaking at the graduation of the maiden batch of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF)-NECA Technical Skills Development Project (TSDP) trainees at the NECA Digital Training Centre, Lagos, on Thursday, said technical and vocational skills have become imperative to bridge the unemployment gap in the country, especially among the youths.
“Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and has one of the largest youth populations in the world numbering over 33.6 million. The global health and economic crisis have further heightened our national challenge of youth restiveness, agitation and social vices being perpetuated in our society. These challenges point to the root causes of widespread poverty, youth unemployment and underemployment,” Adeniyi observed.
According to him, research had revealed there was the dearth of technical and vocational skills required in the Nigerian economy and the labour market. The NECA boss explained it was in the attempt to address this gap that the ITF and NECA decided to partner to continue to provide the technical and vocational training to make the youths employable or even become entrepreneurs.
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Speaking further, he said: “Every youth in our country today must determine to be equipped with the technical and vocational skills which are in demand in the national and international labour market. With the strides in technology over the last decade, opportunities have opened up for individuals and businesses to operate virtually. The demand for Information Communication Technology (ICT) and digital skills is on the increase.”
He disclosed that the ITF and NECA through the TSDP initiative have continued to empower Nigerian youths the past 11 years in over 30 technical/vocational trade areas to meet the identified needs of industries and the country.
“As a way out of the impending national and global crisis, quality Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is widely recognised as having an important role to play in tackling youth unemployment and underemployment,” Adeniyi said.
Also speaking, the director-general of NECA, Timothy Olawale, encouraged the 45 graduands to make the most of the digital skills acquired during the four-month ICT training.
Olawale praised the resilience of the ITF-NECA partnership and the determination of the graduands, culminating in the success of the 4-month ICT training in spite of the challenge posed by the coronavirus pandemic.
The director-general of ITF, Joseph Ari, represented by James Adekunle, ITF training manager, said the training offered the youths the best they could get anywhere in the country and urged the graduands not to consider themselves any more as unemployed.
“Try your hands on something new and continue to improve yourselves. With ITF-NECA training, you can’t get anything less in quality,” Adekunle said.
The graduands were later presented their certificates, with some of the best graduating students carting away awards.
