The prevalence of youth unemployment in Nigeria continues to grow every year. Ever since the period of economic growth in the country, there were always clamors for youth employment. Since, there has only been an upward surge in this challenge. According to statistics from the International Labour Organization, a United Nation agency responsible for developing policies for labour standards, Nigeria was said to have an estimated youth unemployment rate of 19.61 percent. Also, the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2022,reported that about 53.40 percent of youths in Nigeria were unemployed.
With about 100,000 graduates recorded every year, only less than 30,000 are said to have access to regular employments. As a result, the society continues to be increasingly saturated with a lot of idle youths who are exposed to various get-rich-quick illegal schemes, glorification of violence from videos and politics. Recently, the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) projected that the unemployment rate in the country would skyrocket to 37 percent by 2023, four points above the 2020 data of the National Bureau of Statistics’ unemployment data for 2020.
President-Elect urged to model China in curbing unemployment.
Presently, the number of unemployed and employable youths in the country continues to increase. Bola Tinubu, the All Progressive Congress’ presidential candidate, upon being elected president is expected to face, the youth employment question. The incoming president is sure to face demands as to how to harness the numerous critical stakeholders to ensure productivity. With this, the increasing population of skilled criminals that are rearing around different areas of the country must be ultimately curbed.
For a start, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has been urged to model China, under the leadership of President Deng. China was, in similar vein, also faced with the prevalence of youth unemployment. President Deng, after thoroughly analyzing global trends, mostly in tradable skills, made the decision to focus on education, especially in science and information technology. Today, this decision has immensely improved the socioeconomic status quo of China. Presently, the country produces about 50 percent motorcycles and over 30 percent of personal computers all over the world. Factually, the country is reported to graduate about 350,000 engineering and computer specialists every year, three times more than the United States produce.
Costa Rica accrues its 12% GDP from the sales of software.
During the 1960s, Singapore and Nigeria were said to be par on development, both countries accruing about $300 per capita income. However, the gap between these countries have widened over time. In fact, the Singaporean Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong noted that Singapore would not allow any barrier to knowledge, information and life long learning. He said that their open universities would maintain an open access, but would maintain the rigorous academic standards. On workforce, he indicated that they were working to expand the skills of workforce, whilst also keeping older workers employable.
In fact, Nigeria was said to be a lot better than Costa Rica in the early 60s when youths were optimally productive. However, the case is different today, as the country has transitioned into a regional IT power hub over the course of 10 years, as a result of their immense consistency. The availability of an educated works force has been credited as one of the major factors that have heralded the instant rise of this country. Presently, Costa Rica’s 12 percent GDP is majorly accrued from sales of software.
Unemployment can be reduced to its barest extent surge by 2026.
Despite Nigeria being a potential market for global development, one major problem that has affected the country and which the incoming administration must curb, is the dearth of infrastructures and an enabling environment for businesses to thrive. However, with the promise of the President-Elect for easy access to credits NYSC reforms, business mentorship, and business incubation centers, unemployment in the country can genuinely be immensely reduced to the barest possible extent from the present 11.9 million surge by 2026.
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Tinubu must turn youth unemployment around – Unemployment rate projected to skyrocket to 37% before the end of 2023. – Express your point of view.
That’s if he is returned by court as winner of the election. Nigeria really has a lot of problem and then it is import youths get empowered as soon as possible.
Youth unemployment is a significant challenge facing Nigeria today. Tinubu must prioritize efforts to turn the situation around through promoting investments in the private sector, prioritizing investments in education and skill acquisition, incentivizing private sector employers, and leveraging technology to create more jobs for young people. By implementing these strategies, Tinubu can contribute to achieving the Nigerian government’s target of reducing youth unemployment and promoting economic growth in the country.
The only way to turn Nigeria economy around is by making sure the youths are involve in all aspects of the economy growth and governance and if any government doesn’t take this as the major priority of his government,it will very difficult to succeed.
I hope our president elect Tinubu will be able to ensure that unemployment among the youth is drastically reduce provided he has done his mathematics. I believe comparism of Nigeria system of operation with other countries is not right. Our problem is perculia to us and should be treated locally. If frivolous way of living in Nigeria is not taking care of I don’t think we are getting out of the wood yet.
Tinubu does not have a choice than to reduce the unemployment rate in Nigeria because that was his biggest promise for us. I really hope he does something about it
I hope is able to do so it will be nice if he can turn youth unemployment around. The youth need to be employed the rate of unemployment is high something need to be done to reduce it
It is unfortunate that the growing number of highly competent criminals who are emerging in various parts of the country will eventually have to be contained, but this will eventually be necessary.
I think it’s safe to say that we can all agree that there is a growing problem with the number of unemployed young people in our society who are vulnerable to numerous illicit schemes promising quick money.
the lack of facilities and a nurturing climate for businesses to prosper has plagued Nigeriaand this is something the incoming administration must address because it has affected the growth of a lot of businesses.
Youth unemployment is really a concerning issue at hand in Nigeria and it is even responsible for so many atrocities in the country. The new administration have a lot too do if they are to resolve the issue.
Tinubu must turn youth unemployment around, I don’t really know about this because this case of election is still on. So many people are not satisfied with the results of the last general election. We have to wait for the court final judgement before talking about the president duties
The state of the country is deplorable, which need urgent attention from the incoming administration. The president elect Asiwaju Bola Tinubu should realize that he has inherit all the problems that this current administration couldn’t solve. One of such is youth unemployment which is projected to skyrocket to 37% before the end of 2023. The president elect should endeavour to fulfill all the promises he gave concerning the youth doing his manifesto.