Unemployment: Peter Obi promises to create enabling environment for startups

Peter Obi, Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) for the 2023 general election, has promised to create enabling environment for startups in the country to check the rising unemployment rate in Nigeria if elected president.

In the first quarter of 2021, a report published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on its website noted that Nigeria’s unemployment rate has risen from 27.1 percent in the second quarter of 2020, to 33 percent.

Aside from making it the second highest on global list, the NBS report, shows that more than 60 percent of Nigeria’s working-age population is younger than 34.

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Speaking recently, President of African Development Bank (AfDB) Akinwumi Adesina while delivering a lecture, titled: “Nigeria A Country of Many Nations: A Quest for National Integration,” lamented the high rate of joblessness among Nigerians, saying about 40 percent of youths were unemployed.

In a message on his official Twitter handle on Monday, Obi noted that there was the need to move beyond just creating access to easy funding for startups to creating the right environment for them to strive.

According to Obi, “Flutterwave on its own, was recently valued at US$3 billion. We will create an enabling environment for our startups to thrive. Beyond creating access to easy funding.”